Sally Bowring’s form of abstraction takes its cues equally from color field painting,
expressionism, and even impressionism. Patterns emerge from her paintings as
fractal and spatially complex, yet grounded in natural forms. She takes early morning
walks outside her Richmond, Virginia studio, exalting spring’s earliest green shoots,
summer hydrangea’s orbital color, the path of fall leaves drifting into a pond, and
bare winter branches’ spindly geometry. Within the studio, she distills these
observations into compositional cues for her paintings as bands of poppy yellow and
sky blue color become vines or patches of light. A lyrical quality exists in the thin
applications of paint; Bowring allows rhythm and form to emerge from each stroke
as intersecting lines express a lively texture. Her work becomes a dynamic force, much
like the changing of seasons and the unpredictability of nature.
Bowring is based in Richmond, Virginia, where she worked at Virginia Commonwealth
University as a professor and administrator in the Painting + Printmaking Department
(1982-2018). She has taught at the Virginia Museum Studio School and served as Public
Art Commissioner for Richmond. She received a Virginia Museum of Fine Art
Professional Fellowship and a Theresa Pollak Visual Arts Award (2003-2004), among
other accolades. The New York native earned her Bachelor of Arts from Goddard
College in Vermont (1978), an Associate’s degree from the Fashion Institute of
Technology in New York (1975), and a Master of Fine Arts from VCU (1983)

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Website
http://www.sallybowring.com