“I like hearing my work described as more real than real.” – Jacqueline Sferra Rada
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| Etna Clouds 22 x 28 inches |
When asked about their relationship with art, people will often say “I know what I like,” or “I know it when I see it,” or something of that sort. There is an x-factor in appreciation that cannot wholly be described in quantitative or qualitative visual terms. In fact, some of the most creative and fulfilling interactions with works in visual media take place in the realm of the unseen -- art presents us with a mystery and guides us to discovery, often of the self.
Serious artists don’t create to prove over and over again that they can make pictures of something. They perceive a unique beauty and depth of meaning and emotion that can only be conveyed through mastery of a visual form. Irresistible impulse is often expressed by explorations in various types of media. Writers seek out the perfect word. The visual artist employs a wide vocabulary of substances, and will search beyond to find the perfect match to their inspiration. This is not a technical aspect of the studio practice -- an artist who explores with her hands is also exploring with her heart. And that flexibility led Sferra Rada to a solution, an exploration and eventually, a major body of new work.
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| Cil Rialaig Cottages 22 x 28 inches |
She tells of her surprising reaction upon renting a dedicated studio to continue and expand her practice of painting on canvas:
“When I arrived at my first official studio on Lafayette Street -- just a small sliver of private space -- I was overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy. I felt frozen and pressured to create. My antidote was to staple large sheets of paper (30 x 40) on all the walls, squeeze out some paint on my palette and simply paint randomly, just to experience the physical action of painting.
“These “random” paintings turned into a cohesive series of three related and gradated color field paintings. The further results of this experience: I found that working directly on the wall on paper was a freeing experience that brought me closer to creation and completion of my work. It also led to discovering a process that I have used since, that of mixing paint with transparent medium to create sheer tints or glazes that I layer onto gessoed paper. This process matches perfectly the end results I desire -- smooth glowing finishes.”
I could go on for many words describing what it is like to view Jacqueline Sferra Rada’s works on paper, but that would be, as Larry Poons once coined the term in a memorable interview, invisible art. Sferra Rada’s works are a presence, something that you enter rather than observe. As you follow her travels in her many series of paintings, you do not simply admire the view, you are enveloped in the moment and following the story, scene by scene.
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| Keyhole Rock -- 22 x 28 inches |
While being in a certain place is the seed of her creative process, Jacqueline’s more organic and reductive path through place, scope and detail veers from the verisimilitude of traditional landscape and architecture painting and, as a result, her work -- in a soft, insistent, hypnotic voice -- says ever so much more. A patient and focused artist who truly understands the nature of inspiration, Sferra Rada does not really choose the subject of a series until it, in a way, chooses her.
Speaking of an ongoing series, Jacqueline said, “’Swimmers’ began about five years ago quite unconsciously. I was sitting in my studio somewhat in a work lull and began to doodle tiny pastel figures in vast seascapes and skyscapes.” Enchanted with the results, she decided to recreate them as pastels in a larger format and, eventually, as even larger paintings on paper.
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| Swimmers - 24 x 30 inches |
As it is rare for her work to include human figures, Sferra Rada elaborates upon their two-fold nature as, “a rendition of the sea and sky and the vastness of both, with the tiny figures emphasizing this scale of nature.” She continued to create these images, but it was only when she returned to the beach the following summer that she recognized the point of view in the series as her long-time vantage point sitting on the shoreline, observing the striking contrast of the vastness of the view to the horizon against the tiny, distant figures in the surf… “This imagery had been imprinted on my subconscious from my many years of beach-going… It is a subject that I do not tire of as the variations the sea and sky present are endless.” Photography allows her to record more detail – she feels compelled to add distant ships in the far distance because “they are always there” -- but overall the content still stems from the artist’s imagination.
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| Deep -- 22 x 28 inches |
In fact, like the sea, all of Sferra Rada’s subjects adapt well to the fantastic. They are elemental, with moving layers of air and water bounded by sunlight and grounded in the earth. Roads and waterfalls evoking passive and active momentum are each depicted in a wide range of colors reflecting mood and emotion, some more related to what she has observed, others quite removed. Plains and skies can resemble the sea or reflected fire. She describes once such imaginative choice:
“The Small Islands series began after my honeymoon in another of my favorite locations, Northern New Mexico. Again the vastness of nature unfettered by architecture or humanity... the canyons, long views and big sky along with the desert palette of ochres, sienas and soft beiges blend together under the big sky ....driving the empty highways and seeing only minimalist nature on all sides and ahead was something that I felt a need to capture, and thought the best way would be to use the same imagery with just varied subtle palette changes. I named it Small Islands because although it was conceived from a land-locked area with no water or islands, I liked the ambiguity of not labelling it specifically, as well as the idea that masses in the distance can be thought of as islands.”
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| Small Islands - 9 x 15 inches |
Subjects are often mysterious - houses may have absent or blank windows, or doors that open to a void within. All-important is the ubiquitous horizon, ranging from the subtlest of distinctions in horizontal strokes where the sky meets the sea, to the end of the road, or a presence strongly felt even when hidden behind structures.
Some of her most interesting encounters with structure took place during a residency in Ireland where, upon not encountering the misty vistas she thought would provide her theme, she asked herself, “What is speaking to me here?”
Her answer came in the form of the late 18th Century stone cottages that dotted the landscape. While rendering their shapes and placement as she found them, her approach to color, angle and point of view was more visionary – she captured the spirit of the houses in each moment. This residency also inspired a material improvisation – while she did not bring supplies for monoprinting, she found herself moved to do so, thus creating an exquisite series of small prints using water, sponges, and the type of plastic sleeve she uses to protect completed work as the plate on which a print is pulled.
These expressive renderings present an interesting contrast with Sferra Rada’s prior visit to Ireland, whose primary purpose was a retreat to explore Ignatian spirituality. In her architectural works during this excursion, the deep vistas are only glimpsed through doors and windows of houses where she knew people lived and worked, as in one particular piece, The Cheesemaker’s House, and have a true feel of intimacy with the immediacy of life. These are houses of the spirit, life and mystery are within. In the subsequent series she takes a step back from the human concerns within and allows us to explore the spirit of the houses themselves.
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| Goat - monoprint |
When work is, like Sferra Rada’s, both expressionistic and representational, it conveys more than a visual essence. Paintings can evoke all the senses (and our feelings about them) in relation to the subject. Artists engage all their senses too – they speak of the smell of oil paint enlivening them, the feel of clay. Pastels have a special place in Jacqueline’s practice. She describes working with them, in terms of touch, physicality and immediacy, as “the ultimate in instant gratification.” As with paint, she applies pastels in sheer layers to create subtle layered gradations.
Sferra Rada’s travels have taken her to numerous locations, each of which has had an influence on her practice. The vistas of the American Southwest spurred her to abstract details of rock formations to create a series of the same form in myriad colors -- she now considers them to be one piece. White line woodcuts were adopted in Scotland in 2006 as a permanent part of her practice during a visit to Orkney, an area isolated from technology and home to the world’s to the largest concentration of stone-age artifacts. In Dubai, white buildings against the pervasive blue of the Arabian Sea gave rise to a series of geometric abstractions.
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| Abiquiu Hills -- blue -- 22 x 28 inches |
Inspiration comes close to home as well, New York City structures depicted against vivid skies and formidable clouds became one of Sferra Rada’s most popular series, “City Clouds.” Central Park and historic homes of Long Beach have also been her subjects.
The events of September 11, 2001 deeply impacted Sferra Rada as the studio she shared with her husband, painter George Rada, was only blocks away from the World Trade Center. Her visit to the Memorial in 2011 was not intended as an art excursion, but Jacqueline nevertheless found herself drawing the low-lying squares and rectangles that were what remained of the tall towers. Her awareness that they also mark a mass grave infuses the work, in such a way that looking at them now stirs more emotion than memories of the actual event.
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| 9-11 Memorial approx. 12 x 12 inches |
Water, sky, structure, horizon, depth, light, darkness, mystery… seen and unseen, all parts of reality that realism only touches upon, What lies beyond vision, words and dreams to express, that which is just out of memory’s reach, can be found in the paintings of Jacqueline Sferra Rada.
City Clouds - 28 x 22 inches
all images (c) Jacqueline Sferra Rada
