The images that are incorporated into my paintings are symbols of life fertility and civilization — icons that have been an integral part of art in all cultures since primitive times. I assemble these images in ways that highlight their natural beauty and abstract form and integrate or synthesize elements of modern art and folk art, nature, and artifact. By balancing the simple and complex, I hope to create objects of contemplation that will attract the eye immediately and also reward subsequent examination with layers of meaning, with delightful color, with examples of human creativity, and with allusions to living well. Each painting is a synthesis of the varied cultural influences that have shaped my visual consciousness. When these influences converge in a painting, the ordered complexity that results is intended to convey a simple message: know you are alive.
PROFILE
Roger Sandes was inspired to be an artist because of childhood visits to the Art Institute of Chicago. After studying comparative literature in college and acting at theater school he spent two years of living, working, and traveling in England and France, as well as the major art centers of Italy, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, and Mexico. Those experiences have informed his visual style and vocabulary. For more than 30 years he has produced figurative works on nature-based and art historical themes for private and corporate collections.
Roger Sandes’s paintings have been featured in one-person and group exhibitions in galleries, museums, and cultural centers throughout the United States and abroad. These include the Vernissage Gallery and the 123 Fulton Gallery, New York City; the Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN; the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT; The Rock-Wall Gallery, Washington D.C.; Neville-Sargent Gallery, Chicago; The Miller Gallery, Cincinnati; The Lockerbie Gallery, Indianapolis; the Quadrum Gallery, Boston; the Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia; the Leslie Levy Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ; the Posner Gallery, Milwaukee; the Harmon Gallery, Minneapolis; the Rauchbach Gallery, Miami; The Period Gallery, Nashville; Webb & Parsons, New Canaan, CT; Sailor’s Valentine, Nantucket, MA; Brubaker Gallery, Sarasota; Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, VT; The Clown Gallery, Portland, Maine; Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock, VT; The Dorset Gallery, Dorset, VT; the Centro des Artes Creativo, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico and The Pilgrim Studio, London, England.
Roger Sandes’s paintings are in numerous corporate collections including those of the American Security Bank, Bechtel Corp., Case Hoyt Inc., Cedar Point Capital Management, Green River Tools, IBM, Lord, Day and Lord, National Distillers, and Xerox Corporation.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Roger Sandes’s paintings are actually painted drawings. The colors are acrylic washes and glazes on gessoed mahogany or birch plywood panels; they look like silk and feel like eggshell. The luminosity of the colors is the result of their translucence. Each work is coated with acrylic varnish and is washable. He also paints the frames which are custom made to own designs and are integral to the work.
The cut-paper pieces are made with papers painted by the artist with acrylic, gesso, and latex colors, then cut and glued on paper.
