Sam Albright
Ellensburg, WA
Sam Albright, Pacific Northwest artist and musician. To purchase, click the individual painting's purchase button and I will send payment info through PayPal.
Message
I live near a small, farming, college town in eastern Washington State, USA. and love being part of the long history of making art and music. People have been sharing their lives through painting and music for a very long time and as 21st century artists, we are directly a part of that lineage. When I stand in front of a painting I see the surface image as well as the actual brush strokes put there by the painter.
I am currently finishing up a instrumental album of 13 great tracks, while still continuing with watercolors.
I’ve been told to narrow down my focus to one type of art, never being able to pull it off I finally embrace the joy of working with all the amazing materials and mediums we have. These past few years have been a time of getting back to basics, relearning my materials and reawakening the original reasons I began painting and playing over 50 years ago.
These visual works are quite varied. Each series happens in the months after an exploratory period where I experiment with materials and images then when everything comes together a series of pieces will happen. As an example, this last summer I really enjoyed getting up in the morning and heading out painting "en plein air" in watercolors or oils. This led to a nice series of full size watercolor landscapes.
Much of making art has to do with the craft needed to work with “real” materials like water, oils, ink and earth as well as the amazing digital tools we have. After the skills, tools and techniques of the craft are embodied then we hope some art will show up. A painting refracts and reflects light, it has a physical presence in a room and each painting is, by it’s very handmade nature, a unique, one of a kind object that has time built into it.
Statement
Painting is a love affair with the world. Looking so deeply that every shape of bouncing light is a poem. Through the craft of pushing tiny ground-up earth particles around on a flat surface, the painter tries to share this experince. Painting is a visual, light language. A painting may be a cipher for something real or imagined, recognizable or not. Or a painting might be more about the paint itself. When successful, something of the artist’s experience while painting is shared with the viewer. When looking at a 30,000 year old image on a cave wall we are touched by the ochre blown from the mouth of a cousin. I feel a part of the long lineage leading back to those caves. These paintings are my way of sharing the loving observations of a year lived.