September Vhay, "September in September" 2021

SEP TEMBER VHAY

September 1-19, 2021 Jackson Hole Artist Reception | September 10 | 5:30-7:30pm

SEP TEMBER VHAY September in September

Jackson Hole | Scottsdale | AltamiraArt.com

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Alchemy Charcoal on paper | 40 x 45 inches Enquire

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SEPTEMBER VHAY Simplicity and scale. Simplicity at scale. Subtle differences in meaning become subtle mastery of composition in September Vhay’s new series of charcoals. Her consideration of these two concepts courses through the work: simplicity, palpably expressed in her decision to remove the immediacy of color by focusing on the value and composition communicated by the black charcoal on white paper.

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For Vhay, this approach recalls a paraphrased missive: Value and composition do all the work while color and subject matter get all the credit. “I’m removing the emotion of color,” she says, and adding the impact of scale, as evidenced in a life-sized eagle, its six-foot-wingspan unfurled in flight toward the viewer. “The details confront you.”

To make simplicity at such scale truly work, gesture—profound and patient—must be present. Gesture resolves the questions she asks herself: “What am I saying? What am I expressing? The eagle and the owl are about flight,” she says, tracing the gestural through line of each distilled work. Another piece features a horse and a hummingbird. “The appaloosa has a curious look on his face; he’s having a dialogue with the hummingbird.

It’s a graphic composition. The gesture is connection.”

“When the composition is minimal, whatever you are saying is heard more loudly,” she

says. “With so few moves, each mark carries more meaning.”

The medium, too, becomes all the more important. “I find the immediacy of charcoal to be freeing,” she says. “I love the simplicity of it, of working with just carbon and paper.

These are final pieces done in a medium generally used for studies.” As such, each composition channels the palpable sense of discovery often found in a study as well as the artist’s close connection to her subjects.

An avid equestrian, Vhay realized that, while using a rag to achieve the texture of fur on the appaloosa, she was making the same circular gesture as she does when brushing her horses. She even thought to herself, “Now I’ll do the other side. My brain jumped to the real act.”

A simple gesture, lovingly made in life, replicated on paper, at scale.

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Cheyenne Charcoal on paper | 24 x 30 inches Enquire

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Joy 18 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire

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Joy 21 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire

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Indian Summer Charcoal on paper | 24 x 30 inches Enquire

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Repartee Charcoal on paper | 30 x 75 inches Enquire

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Silent Trace Charcoal on paper | 40 x 51 inches Enquire

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Joy 19 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire

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Joy 20 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire

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Togwotee Soar Charcoal on paper | 26 x 78 inches Enquire

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Trio Watercolor on paper | 10 x 10 inches Enquire

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Whisper Watercolor on paper | 6 x 6 inches Enquire

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172 Center Street | Jackson Hole Wyoming AltamiraArt.com | 307-739-4700

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