Avant Studio & Gallery

Sally Backey - Avant

Artist Statement





Inspirations:
My inspiration has always come from the outdoors. The outdoors can include nature and man made subjects.
When I am working my mind is often on Mother Nature and her creations. Flowers, grasses, meadows and tree leaves. When I am looking at man made items I will abstract their shapes but allowing the viewer to still understand what they are looking at.

Artists:
My greatest inspiration came from George O’Keefe. I began by seeing her art in magazines, calendars, etc. Then I began to read about her life and her travels. I admire her tenacity, her unfound fear for doing as she thought fit for herself and the interesting process of her choices. It has only been recently I have found her nitch in the “modern” painting arena to be understood.
A very recent discovery was Milton Avery. His work explained to me that my way of seeing subjects was good. Not something to be hidden.
The French Impressionists gave me my first view of fine art. The subject matter and the light they obtained in their paintings captured me. Cezanne brought the outdoors to me even when in the end of his days he was studio painting only.
Lately, I have found painting people to be an interesting area to work. The Renoir, Pisarro, Manet, Morisot and Cassett have inspired me to allow myself to paint people has they are in their daily lives.
My abstraction comes from the Commercial (Graphic) Designers of the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. Their concepts for advertising and illustration gave me ideas that are instilled into my art.

Philosophy:
My basic philosophy is to spread love into this world the best way I know how, which is to produce, teach and give art to all who want it.