30 Apr The Beauty of Restraint

I am always looking for the unseen in nature,” says artist Jared Sanders, whose serene, dreamlike paintings capture facets of the West that feel both familiar and fresh. “That’s true whether I’m at home or traveling in search of it. I feel like I’ve always been inspired artistically by the Western landscape.”

Sanders says he doesn’t remember when he decided to become an artist. “It was always just what I am.”

Slider | Oil on Canvas | 48 x 48 inches

A native of Kaysville, Utah, Sanders recalls making drawings and watercolors of nearby farms in his youth, inspired by surroundings that he describes as “fairly rural, or at least rural adjacent. As a boy, I really admired the works of LeConte Stewart, who actually lived in Kaysville until his death in 1990. I liked that he made paintings of the ordinary or perhaps overlooked scenes. To this day, I try to find the beauty in the landscape that maybe others don’t.”

Admirers of Sanders’ work attest to his success not only in finding that beauty but in capturing and transmitting it. “His paintings have this incredible ability to evoke emotion through restraint,” says Jason Williams, owner of Altamira Fine Art in Jackson, Wyoming. “There’s an intentional simplicity to his compositions that invites contemplation, and yet each piece is layered with nuance. His work is very sophisticated and appeals to those who value subtlety and depth. Collectors are often unexpectedly moved by it. They describe it as calming, meditative, even spiritual. There’s a sense of stillness that draws viewers in and holds their attention longer than they expect. … In a fast-paced world, his paintings offer a moment of pause — and that’s a rare gift.”

Evergreen | Oil on Canvas | 41 x 60 inches

With pause comes renewal. By homing in on its oft-overlooked features, Sanders subtly defamiliarizes and refreshes the Western landscape, inspiring viewers to see it — as well as the structures that inhabit it — anew. In works like Roofscape, Slider, and Five, he renders the West’s aging barns in a way that both illuminates and celebrates the organic beauty of once-straight forms as they yield to the effects of time and weather. He has also turned his eye toward the West’s modest dwellings; rather than assert themselves over the land, the trailer houses in On Painted Ground and Madrid and the prefab home in Approach seem included in the quiet splendor of their surrounding environments’ shapes and lines.

“The structures are really just me looking for unique shapes that I can juxtapose against the landscape,” Sanders says. “I’m not interested in telling a story or illustrating a time or place. As I’ve progressed, the barns and other structures have begun to play a smaller role in my more recent work. I can only respond to what I see now.”

Tapestry | Oil on Canvas | 41 x 72 inches

That recent work evinces what seems like a natural evolution on Sanders’ part. In addition to having long been inspired by Russell Chatham’s “ability to simplify the landscape down to only its most essential forms,” he has lately been drawn to abstract art and grown “more and more fond of the paintings by Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, and others. Their works have influenced my Minimalist leanings.”

Chamisa and Sage | Oil on Canvas | 18 x 14 inches

Such minimalism is evident in Sanders’ paintings of trees. From the fine, fractal geometry of bare branches against snow in The Quiet Place to the unexpected delicacy latent within lush, expansive boughs in Evergreen, Sanders’ works are highly attentive — and sensitive — to the unique expression of each specimen. “I am fascinated by trees,” he says, “particularly when they are silhouetted by snow or sky, which helps to reveal their beautiful shape and structure. I approach trees the same way I do the landscape: I eliminate the parts of the tree that don’t serve the composition and paint what’s left. The right tree, with its negative space, is a great device to use to divide and define the space.”

Five | Oil on Canvas | 48 x 48 inches

Along with composition, Sanders’ sense of color, which seems to inhabit an exquisite border between judicious and invigorating, plays a significant role in making his paintings sing. Autumnal foliage gilds a cluster of trees in Kelly Back Road, a wash of pale pink surrounds a sculptural poplar in Lombardy, and brain-tinglingly vivid turquoise tarps crown hay bales in Two Top and Three Top. For all their impact, Sanders’ colors aren’t overdetermined. “I don’t really think about my actual palette that much,” he says. “I manage to mix the colors I’m looking for. Over the last 30 years or so, I’ve only added two additional colors. The palette of a finished painting comes from what just feels right to me.”

Enchantment | Oil on Canvas | 18 x 14 inches

Sometimes, it is a relative absence of color — a canvas occupied mostly by pale sky, such as Vertical Ground, or a thoughtful use of white space in works like Rocky Ground and Chamisa and Sage — that imbues Sanders’ works with so much “quiet power,” to quote Williams at Altamira Gallery. “What I really appreciate,” Williams continues, “is how Jared distills the landscape to its essential forms while still honoring its complexity. He doesn’t rely on traditional motifs or nostalgic tropes. He is pushing the boundaries of landscape painting and challenging the status quo in his quiet, understated way.”

“I edit out all the distractions in a scene,” Sanders explains, “until all that’s left is quiet. … I use the sky as a place for the eye and mind to rest when looking at my work. The sky is a prominent feature of the West. Much of our landscape is stripped bare or seen from a high vantage point, so there is nothing blocking our view of the sky. Lowering the horizon in a composition can also give a sense of calm to the viewer,” he adds. “The existence of a horizon in a painting is what defines it as a landscape. I’m interested in how the elements of the landscape relate to each other and the four edges of the canvas, and not so much in recreating a typical landscape. This has led to many paintings with no horizon. The elements of the landscape are there, but the scene is subservient to the composition that exists within the four sides of the canvas.”

The Quiet Place | Oil on Canvas | 30 x 18 inches

Though confined by the borders of a canvas, Sanders’ paintings not only portray the landscapes of the West but expand our capacity to grasp their vast and ineffable beauty, the beauty that simmers, unseen, under the surface and within the shapes of things.

With humility, he describes his efforts as ongoing. “My hope,” Sanders says, “is that I can, in a quiet way, contribute something unique and original to the genre of landscape painting. For almost three decades as a working artist, I’ve been striving to realize a way of painting and a look that feels right to me. I’m getting close.”