With their organic colors, earthy textures and expressive brushstrokes, Sandra Schawalder’s elegant works of pure abstraction resonate with the deeply felt joy of art making. Her mixed media on canvas paintings incorporate a natural color pallet that draws directly from the world around her. Slate gray, azure blue, burnt sienna and frosty white coexist in a peaceful harmony reminiscent of the untouched landscape. It is in fact this relationship to the natural world that gives an inherent warmth and relatability to Schawalder’s decidedly contemporary paintings. Unlike other formidable works of formal abstraction, Schawalder’s paintings invite the viewer in to examine their surfaces, marvel at their stunning hues, and meditate on their joyous construction. Passionate gestures of the brush abound on every canvas, by which the artist asserts her presence, exclaiming through color and texture that which words simply cannot express.
Sandra Schawalder lives and works near Zurich and exhibits her work in Switzerland and New York.
My paintings are the key to my personality. They come about, largely spontaneously and reflect the joy and gratitude that I find in my artwork. I regard painting as my mother tongue. My works are elements expressing my joy and enthusiasm for art. They are the result of complementary colour contrasts and highly differentiated material structures that form the basis of my painting style. Technically, the paintings result from a “layer by layer” process where I use a combination of Acrylic, Sand, Collages, Brush and other, occasionally unusual, tools to work the surface and achieve the effects I want.
