Hard-edged light fills the rhythmic landscape of the Great Basin Desert. Cloud shadows race across basins. Winter snow melts quickly under big skies. Alkali dust and the floating mirages of island-mountains blur these sharp edges on hot summer days. The gray-green of desert shrubs and the blue surprise of springs and marshes add color and life to the geography of rock and sun.
Sean Toomey understands this landscape better than any painter I know. He decodes its subtle vitality. His watercolors capture the contrasts of wetland and desert, stormlight and starkness. This is a horizontal land, and so he paints only horizontal watercolors true to the place. His bands of color capture the quixotic light, the concentric circles of ecological communities, and the serenity of the desert. He understands the drama and tension that dwell at the boundary between lake and salt-pan, basin and range. And he knows that these tensions lead to a kind of crazy joy—colors that you can never take for granted, beauty that seems both fierce and private when you come upon it sixty miles from pavement, alone.
The hidden landscapes of Utah’s West Desert have found their artistic advocate in Sean Toomey.
--Stephen Trimble, author/photographer of The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin Current Exhibits Phillips Gallery
444 East 200 South Tuesday - Friday 11:00-6:00 From recent exhibit (see link below) Fresco Italian Cafe
Phillips Gallery
October 21 through November 11, 2011
Watercolor Slide ShowsSlide show option upper left; move cursor and adjust time at bottom. Recent Phillips Exhibit:
Larger Phillips Work: https://picasaweb.google.com/seantoomey007/NewWork?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJXm-oT1hua4Tg&feat=directlink#slideshow/5657095671227581458
West Desert Horizons (Main Library Show): https://picasaweb.google.com/seantoomey007/WestDesertHorizons?feat=directlink#5428253540416609154
Additional Work Available http://picasaweb.google.com/seantoomey007/WorkAvailable?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6UvZb6tM6cNg&feat=directlink
Additional Work Not Available http://picasaweb.google.com/seantoomey007/WorkNotAvailable?authkey=Gv1sRgCLna4eGkjNuATQ&feat=directlink
Fine Art Digital Prints for $200: https://picasaweb.google.com/seantoomey007/GicleePrints?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCI-XoOGk_uOQ0wE&feat=directlink.
Articles
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I've seen the world in brush strokes and washes since I was twelve. Lately, the wide expanses and the light and color of Utah’s west desert have captured my attention. From Fish Springs to the Bear River Bird Refuge, and from the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake to Pilot Peak, the landscapes are foreboding, but their starkness holds a unique beauty: a sea of salt, sand and mud; plants struggling against the heat and salinity; mountains cast from fire; skies of infinite variety and width; water in unlikely places. I use transparent watercolors exclusively. I paint without preliminary sketching to allow for an intuitive representation. I primarily paint with two-inch and one-inch brushes to capture scenes with the fewest strokes. I use paper with panoramic dimensions to best match the subject.
I have had the privilege of excellent private teachers, including Ed Maryon, as well as training at the San Francisco Art Institute, the San Francisco Academy of Art, and the University of Utah.
Thanks to Kate for all her encouragement and support, as well as her great ideas -- she's never wrong!
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