Sandra Peterson

Tweet Sandra Peterson is known for using mark making in her paintings, intensely integrating subjects with background in her portrayal of the animal kingdom. As she herself describes her work, “I’m interested in a background that interposes with foreground, simulating that we, somehow, are all interconnected on many levels and themes in our lives and in our world.” The colors of her heavily-textured paintings are both bold and grounded in the muted earth tones of the natural world. Her subjects are wild animals – lions, cheetahs, leopards, wolves and zebras – portrayed with a strength, energy and emotion that reaches beyond realistic depiction. The titles of her works such as “Cheetah Apple” and “Still Life with Leopard,” reflect the way she relates wild to domestic life, interior consciousness to exterior existence. “In bringing these ideas together,” Peterson explains, “I want to show the role that still life plays in the history of art and its relevance to the world of living animals.” Influenced by the work of Milton Avery and George Baselitz, Peterson has been admired for her unique mark making, daring and originality since she was a student. She received her BFA at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and won the Paulette Chandeler Scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1996, she completed her MFA and was declared a painter of high achievement. Recently, her work was featured on the set of the hit TV show, Chicago Fire. Large Animal no. 326 - Blue, 58x46, oil on canvas Cheetah Star, 52x52, oil on canvas Cheetah Star (Small), 12x16, oil on canvas Big Cat, 14x17, oil on canvas Horse Star, 20x24, oil on canvas Leopard, 20x16, oil on canvas Lion's Lung, 40x36, oil on canvas Llamba, 35x42, oil on canvas My Home is the Sea, 33x33, oil on canvas Still Life With Leopard, 27x26, oil on canvas Wolves, 60x67, oil on canvas Zebra, 44x44, oil on canvas Cheetah Apple, 14x18, oil on canvas