Dan's Papers Cover Artist Sandra Bloodworth Shares New Year's Inspiration

This week’s cover, “Happy New Year” by Sandra Bloodworth, captures the celebratory atmosphere that comes every year when the calendar turns. Bloodworth’s oil painting is just one of the artist’s many lovely still life pieces. You can see more of Bloodworth’s work in person at William Ris Gallery, 1291 Main Road, Jamesport and online at sandrabloodworth.com.

What was the inspiration for the piece?
“Happy New Year” captures a glimpse of the evening. This New Year’s Eve plan of an intimate evening with my husband, Fred May, began months ahead by securing tickets for an 8 p.m. concert at Lincoln Center, celebrating George Gershwin. We began with a light dinner at home before the concert and we made preparations for a traditional celebration when we returned. After a fabulous evening immersed in Gershwin, we arrived home shortly before midnight to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV. The coffee table was adorned with white lilies and New Year’s Eve party favors with a late night feast of champagne and caviar.

What does New Year’s Eve mean to you?
The week between Christmas and New Years has always been a special time for Fred and me, enjoying dinners and parties with family and friends, but most of all it’s a time to just be with each other. New Year’s Eve is one of those celebrations when two is definitely enough.

How did you get started in art?
I have drawn and painted from the time I was able to pick up a crayon. As I matured as a painter, I was drawn to abstraction—hard-edged realistic works—and then moved toward figurative subjects to portray the people and things in my life. Working initially in acrylic and then in oil, in an attempt to both capture the personality of the subject and, in turn, reveal my own. While always returning to still life paintings, I became a figurative painter with an emphasis on the portrait.

If you could sit down with any artist, who would it be? What would you talk about?
Elizabeth Murray. I would listen. Whatever Elizabeth wanted to talk about would be amazing and I would be lucky to be in her presence. Elizabeth was a role model to artists. Elizabeth pursued her career with vigor, creating remarkable paintings, but she was also a kind and generous person. She was an artist’s artist.

What do you hope people take from your work?
Meals, flowers and portraits are all subjects that are close to my heart and with which I entertain a close relationship in my practice as a painter. I often set out to capture, with lush images, my life as it’s shared with my partner. The work is intimate and personal and often about bounty and the desire for love, good times and abundance.

Read more Honoring the Artist interviews.