Vicki Sawyer is one of our favorite artists at Lark & Key, so you can imagine how excited we were when we learned that she would be doing a big show at the Lark & Key and we would be able to meet the artist herself.
What we so enjoy about Sawyer’s work is not only how lifelike the animals in her paintings are, but how she incorporates hats of flowers, fruit and vegetables into her art piece. The smallest detail adds to the realistic and yet still very whimsy feel to her paintings.
Through talking with Sawyer we learned how she’d attended art school during the 1970’s, but it wasn’t until after art school when she’d done work painting murals (where you have to paint exactly what the client is looking for) where she gained her real experience.
When we asked her how she decided to start incorporating fruits and vegetables into her work, she mentioned the Tomato Art Festival that occurs in Nashville each year near her adopted hometown of Franklin and how each piece of art must include a tomato.
While speaking to the gallery co-owner, we found out about the story behind the multi-colored carrots in this hare painting. The co-owner, Sandy Snead was eating multi-colored carrots with hummus when Vicki Facetime’d her asking about whether she should go with orange carrots, or multi-colored, and after seeing that Sandy was eating multi-colored carrots, she figured it was a sign. So there you go.
In addition to Sawyers amazing pieces, Duy Huynh, who co-owns the Lark & Key along with his wife, had some new pieces up as well. When we asked where he drew his inspiration from, he mentioned that sometimes it’s the lyrics of a song, to a life experience, something in nature, or even a movie that can serve as inspiration for his work.
You can view Sawyers paintings now through May 27th, so if you find yourself in the Charlotte area, I would definitely give the Lark & Key a visit.
