Sandra Peterson | Animals of Freeness

Sandra Peterson returned to Wantoot Saturday, June 1, 2019  for a show of her newest artworks entitled "Animals of Freeness."

We asked Sandra about the meaning of the show. She explained that she frequently paints large animals and that she had titled a small recent work of a Bull in movement "Animals of Freeness." She thought that since her animal subjects come from the natural world where they are in movement and free, using "Animals of Freeness" as the title for the show was particularly appropriate. 

Sandra enjoys large animals as subjects because she believes they especially lend themselves to her strong gesteral style of painting. 

Her paintings of large animals often are large pieces themselves. One painting in the show, "Wolves with Still-Life" is substantial at 67" x 78" W.

Unique to the show is an array of nine smaller 16" x 20" works. While Sandra routinely works on several large pieces over a long given period of time, sometimes 3 years or more, we asked her if her process differed for the small works. "I start with the animal, I'm working the abstract style into the animals so the background often comes into play with the animals. Then I let the painting sort of tell me what it wants to become. The build-up of colors frequently come by giving the painting some time to sit, and then approching it the next day with a new color pallette."

Growing up in Wisconsin, Sandra says she can't remember when she wasn't painting. She foundly remembers as a little girl on cold Winter evenings,  speading wet paintings on the warm floor registers to dry. "Animals of Freeness" runs through July 28.