NEWS RELEASE
The Gallery @ Barr Photographics announces the resurrection of the Corner Gallery’s
exhibition schedule with the return of the venerable, award-winning, 88-year-old
COVID-19 survivor, John F. Sauers’
exhibit of new, Plein Aire oil paintings titled, “Change of Seasons” for the summer installment.
John
is a highly collected, well-known artist in this region, who has been active in
the local art scene for more than forty-five years. John is a founding member of the Arts Depot
in Abingdon, Virginia, who enjoyed eight years, 2000-2008, as an artist in
residence at the William King Museum also located in Abingdon, Virginia. John
has influenced a host of local and regional artists through painting classes,
seminars, workshops, and his outgoing personality throughout his storied career.
John was born and raised in Harford County, Maryland, he graduated from the
Maryland Institute of Art in 1955, spent 35 years as a graphic artist for the
Baltimore Gas and Electric Company while concurrently pursuing his fine art
career. After retirement he moved to
his ancestral home White Top, Va., in 1990 where, for more than twenty years,
he produced his own creative work full time, in addition to sharing his love of
art, expertise, and enthusiasm with students young and old. In 2005
John left his ancestral home, moving to the village of Berkeley, near
Darlington Maryland, to be closer to his children.
In
his Artist’ Statement, John states, “Our lives are a perceived journey into places where the “Change of Seasons” touches our being. Recently, I introduced the crow into my work as a
metaphor of myself. The crow represents itself in proportion of vastness of the
landscape. The crow knows. As the crow, I have traveled from early in life
through Maryland into the Shenandoah Valley and landed at my grandparent’s farm
in Whitetop, Virginia, nesting there in 1981. Taking flight again in 2005, I
returned to the land of my Father, in Berkley Maryland, where the flight
originally began. Now at 88 years, I am beginning to feel a “Change of Seasons” after my brush with
mortality, from contracting COVID-19 last fall at 87 years old. I spent a month
in hospital battling COVID and the saving grace was that I did not have to be
placed on a ventilator. Upon my release from hospital, it took me three weeks
to be able to walk fifty steps. Those fifty steps took me from my bed to my
front porch, where my son, Sam, set up my easel and paints so I could begin
painting again. These fifty steps were almost to the end of the tubing extension
that Sam installed on the oxygen tank I had to use for a while during recovery,
because of the affect the disease had on my lungs. From the front porch I began
a series of autumnal, plein aire scenes, some of which are included in my
present exhibit. During this recovery time on the front porch, a crow showed up
and I began to follow my spirit animal around the farm, short distances at
first, then gradually longer as I began to regain some of my strength, all the
while sketching and painting. I credit that crow for helping me get back into
the field to paint!
The season may be changing but this old crow still
flies into the dawn of a new day.
“Change of Seasons” will be celebrated with a reception and art talk by John F Sauers, to which the public is cordially invited, on Friday, 13 August from 7 - 9:00 PM in The Gallery @ Barr Photographics, 152 E. Main Street, Abingdon, Virginia. “Change of Seasons” will hang, and be offered for sale, through 30, September. The Gallery @ Barr Photographics is housed in the Greenway Trigg Building, located in the heart of Abingdon’s main street historic district. Please call 276- 628-1486 or visit http://barrphotographics.com for further information.
