‘Lightness & Weight’ – Rebecca Sitar

“The function of the artist is to express a reality felt” Robert Motherwell.

Sitar’s paintings act directly on our sensory experiences. Her abstract imagery is at times shown as ‘a blurred expression’, suggesting s rare glimpse of a moment caught in passing. This experience of time, coupled with the use of harmonious colour, sets up a seductive dream-like state.

Such an alluring sensibility, however, is countered by more contending forces. Complementary opposites of gestural marks – thick/thin, dark/light and the use of bold shapes overlay the bold colour and disrupt the painting surface. As paint is poured, dragged and lifted off, so a multi-layering of ambiguous meaning is built up.

Some of the paintings in ‘Lightness and weight’ are achieved over a longer period of time. The slowing down of the paintings completion allows opportunities for life’s circumstances, the shift in mental/emotional states, to be expressed in an individual piece of work. This deepens the complexity of the painting and creates an engaging dialogue with the viewer.

‘Lightness and Weight’ demonstrates abstract art at its best – an intellectual and emotional struggle in both its execution and understanding. Nothing less than ‘a reality felt’.

Rebecca Sitar trained at Winchester School of Art (BA Hons Fine Art 1988-91) and Manchester Metropolitan University (MA Painting 1991-92). She currently works at Manchester Artists Studio Association.