{"id":447,"date":"2010-02-03T02:17:11","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T08:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15bytes12\/2010\/02\/03\/sherri-belassen\/"},"modified":"2023-11-04T14:40:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T20:40:10","slug":"sherri-belassen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/sherri-belassen\/","title":{"rendered":"Sherri Belassen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pulled by Sherri Belassen, 32 x 78, oil on canvas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The exciting thing about art is the opportunity to see and experience the world through the eyes of the artist. Bringing her own unique way of seeing to the\u00a0Phoenix Gallery\u00a0in Park City is\u00a0Sherri Belassen<\/a>, an Arizona artist whose work is distinguished by her process of layering oil paint to achieve expressive, colorful works with both humor and depth.<\/p>\n

Though some of Belassen\u2019s work has been in the Phoenix for a few months, she will be their featured artist in an exhibition of 20 paintings that opens February 26. Describing her work as \u201cfigurative-abstract\u201d and \u201cmulti-layered,\u201d Belassen shared with me the process that yields large, colorful paintings with exaggerated, or stylized, figures, and other interesting shapes on a ground that dances with smaller shapes through which the viewer can see the \u201chistory,\u201d of the painting, the many layers leading to the final work.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderpainting is very important,\u201d Belassen tells me. Using a very loose, colorful, abstract wash of turpentine-thinned paint, Belassen covers the surface intuitively, not necessarily knowing what the finished painting will be, unless it\u2019s a commission for a specified subject. When the first layer dries Belassen may repeat this process a few more times until she\u2019s satisfied with the underpainting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I do a pen and ink drawing,\u201d she says, before beginning the subject layers of the painting. She may turn the painting on all sides considering what subject it suggests. Then she draws the figure(s) onto the underpainting using a brush and a \u201cfun color.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for subjects, Belassen most enjoys painting semi-abstract figures, thinking about relationships among figures or \u201chow the figure might feel in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Next, Belassen blocks in some big shapes of color using either palette knife or brush, being careful as she works to leave open areas for the underpainting to show through. She likes a smooth finish on her paintings, so she may scrape or sand the paint in places to smooth the surface. For her final layers, she uses Liquin as a medium with her oil paint.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For Belassen \u201ccolor is very important. Color can give a painting a sense of power and strength.\u201d As she works on a series of paintings for a show or for a commission, she may choose a similar color palette \u2013 predominately reds, or blues, or creams, for example.<\/p>\n

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Citrus Cheval by Sherri Belassen, 72 x 18, oil on canvas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Because she tends to work large (typically 48 x 72 inches), and because it takes time for the layers in the underpainting to dry in between layers, it may take a few weeks to complete a painting. But Belassen insists she has no timer driving the completion of a painting. She has several works in progress concurrently, so there\u2019s always something to do as layers dry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pulled by Sherri Belassen, 32 x 78, oil on canvas The exciting thing about art is the opportunity to see and experience the world through the eyes of the artist. Bringing her own unique way of seeing to the\u00a0Phoenix Gallery\u00a0in Park City is\u00a0Sherri Belassen, an Arizona artist whose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":940,"featured_media":40118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[821],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-sherri-belassen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/sherribell.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 11:33:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/940"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70230,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions\/70230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}