Susan Smolensky, an artist we featured last December, has won Best in Show at the Women Artists of the West 41st National Juried Exhibition in Rockport, Texas. This was not a sporting art exhibition, but Smolensky’s dramatic steeplechase painting evidently captivated the judges.
In our December article, we quoted Smolensky as saying, “In my Steeplechase Series I have drawn upon this inspiration [horse and rider] to paint dramatic, rhythmic renderings of an instant in time, in space and in emotional gravity.”
Gravity—emotional and otherwise—is surely at work here! Smolensky’s intentions are not aimed at rendering the classic, graceful Thoroughbred you would love to have your barn. Her brush strokes evoke exaggerations that move beyond reality to enhance the dynamics of that “instant in time” that she attempts to capture.
Last winter the Willcox Hotel in Aiken, South Carolina scheduled a month’s exhibition of Smolensky’s paintings. The exhibition was so popular it was held over, and several paintings from her Steeplechase Series are still on display there. She is represented by the Chisholm Gallery in Millbrook, New York.
For more of Smolensky’s work, see our December article.
Posted May 19, 2011
The Principle of Uncertainlty by Susan Smolensky, oil on canvas, 18×24 inches