Artist's Statement

I have consistently returned to the garden as a subject because I paint what I love to see. For years I've studied gardens, drawing and photographing them extensively at different times of day and night, observing many light and color changes. Gardens and still lifes moved to garden settings are ideal subjects for the sensuous representation of fruits, flowers, and disheveled greenery—all beautiful and powerful everyday wonders.

Painting water gardens became a natural extension, bringing together many themes which I love most: the surge of color and the paradox of freezing in a still image that which is never still. Painting water presents an interesting formal problem because it can be any color, it's moveable, and has no set visual description. I see water gardens as man-made containers of nature, set in nature which they reflect. The dancing surface rhythms reflect not only the sky and other natural surroundings but the depth of the water as well. Where you see the surface you also see through it and under it, focusing on the dematerialized objects present there.

I want to share not only the vibrant color of these places but also the more subtle and unexpected wonders—the rhythm of the water at the pond's edge or the breeze on a summer evening.

Artist's Biography

Sydni Sterling is an Indianola painter, art educator and former award-winning art director for Frederick & Nelson department store in Seattle. She received her B.A. in painting at the University of Oregon and studied at the Ecole Superior des Beaux Arts in Dijon, France.

Sterling has earned numerous awards at Northwest art festivals, including the Bellevue Art Fair, Edmonds Arts Fair, and is a three-time best of show winner at the North Kitsap Arts and Crafts Fair.

Her painting and drawings have been shown since 1974, including exhibits at the Cheney Cowles Art Museum in Spokane and the Bellevue Art Museum. Her work appears in private and corporate collections throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

Current work can be seen at her studio in Indianola, WA where she lives with husband, Mike Dillon, and their two sons.