Sarah Fire 2015

Felice House painted “Sarah Fire” sometime in the last thirty years, I’m guessing, but who knows? It’s a portrait done with oils, and the warm palette of oranges and yellows really gives it a sense of vibrancy and warmth. I bet it was fun for House to make. I mean, I can imagine her layering those strokes, shifting the colors, and building up the figure. The paint looks thin, so she was probably working wet-on-wet, keeping it loose and intuitive. There's a real sense of how the artist is feeling: it's like we can see right into her emotional landscape. The way House uses these warm colors reminds me of early expressionists like Kirchner or Heckel who were really into the emotional impact of color. It’s like she’s playing with fire, not just in the background but in the whole mood of the painting. So much of painting is like this, a way of connecting with artists across time, and really feeling the pulse of art history.