Sara Roberts @ North House Gallery

Presence in Paint is an exhibition of paintings by Sara Lee Roberts. When the show was first discussed early last year, the portraits (and portraits of portraits by Old Masters) were painted in a separate studio from the pure abstracts. Increasingly the two genres have been combined to make new and distinctive hybrids.
“In my recent work, I move between figuration and abstraction, looking for the moment at which the sense of a place or of a person is expressed, regardless of degree of finish. Portraits of portraits are sometimes combined with abstract panels in a search for a combination which triggers quiet surprise. In the pure abstracts, colours (mostly blacks and reds) are allowed to react to one another until space and light is suggested.” Sara Lee Roberts