Harriet Sawyer

Harriet Sawyer had a successful career as a textile designer before turning exclusively to painting in 2002. Finding inspiration in the people around her, Sawyer uses the canvas as a ground for experimentation. In her work, languid female forms emerge from deep shadows in oblique narratives that evoke emotional responses. “There’s a beautiful feeling that comes over me when I walk in and smell the paint and I start applying it to the canvas,” says Sawyer of her studio on Long Island’s East End. “A day without painting to me is a day that hasn’t started yet.”