From April 13 through May 18, The Cornwall Library is presenting Live It Up!, a selection of bold, vivid landscape and abstract works by artist Joelle Sander (1942–2023) that fully justify the name of the show. The opening reception on April 13 from 5 to 7 pm, with registration requested at https://cornwalllibrary.org/events/.

Sander was already an award-winning author in her late 40s when she began painting seriously. She pursued painting with characteristic zeal, putting it on equal footing with writing, and attending studio classes in New York until the week before her passing. Early on, she took to heart a comment by artist Wolf Kahn, who noticed in one of her pastels an unusual color choice. “Ah ha,” he said, “You see, you are a colorist!”

Steve Ninteman, a fellow artist and friend, says “Color is what Joelle celebrated the most in all her work. She also pursued themes of movement, fire, scale, trees and light. What is inspiring is that she took whatever idea she was interested in and brought it directly to a large canvas. Joelle did lovely personal drawings around her Connecticut home, in museums and Central Park, but she didn’t do many preparatory sketches for paintings. Instead she would make a few simple outlines with her brush and dive in. Her color choices appeared quickly in assured passages…Looking at her surroundings with love and attention, Joelle transformed them with her personal form making, then gave them a life of their own with color choices that only she could imagine. ”

Sander was inspired by painters as diverse as turn-of-the-20th-century Canadian landscapist Tom Thomson and American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell.

She lived in New York City and West Cornwall, Connecticut. Live it Up! will offer oil paintings for sale, with proceeds benefiting art and poetry programs at The Cornwall Library.

The Cornwall Library
30 Pine Street
Cornwall, CT 06753

Events