Artist: Anita Eralie Schley
Title: Repentant Sunflowers
Medium: Acrylic and oil on panel
Price: $100
Dimensions: 9 x 6 inches
Artist Statement: Renaissance painters often used older paintings and painted over them. Sometimes, accidentally the older painting would start to show through the painted over image. Italian painters called this mistake Pentimento (which means Repentance or To Repent.) Some artists were intrigued by this phenomenon and began intentionally creating works where backgrounds or under paintings were intentionally part of the image. This technique is still popular with many painters today. In this painting I created a red underpainting and then added the color sunflowers on top. I intentionally left the whole thing rough and loose. I quite like how it turned out. What do you think? In honor of the style I’m experimenting with, I’m calling this painting “Repentant Sunflowers.
Artist Bio: Anita graduated from the University of Utah in 1996 with BFA in Studio Art. In addition to having her work in a multitude of galleries and publications, she has also taught art through continuing education classes, Alternative high school in the Box Elder County School District, the college setting at Salt Lake Community College and was the photography program director for CLASS Art School. Anita is both a painter and a photographer and enjoys exploring different mediums in her artwork. She has received multiple awards throughout her career including most recently: Honorable Mention 2023 for the Workshop13 exhibit RED, Award of Merit 2022 Utah Women Artists Exhibit, Best of Show 2020 Box Elder Museum Photography group exhibit. She lives in Springville, Utah with her husband. She has four adult children and recently became a grandmother for the first time.
