Sandra Chanis L.
Carrara marble. Started in 2015 and finished in 2019. The purpose of this sculpture was to show technical control of the material. Starting with a square piece of marble, Chanis wanted to take away as little material as possible. The challenge was to have geometrical straight lines, some so thin that it showed skill and knowledge of the medium.
This Cube has no top, no bottom, no side, no front. It can be rotated at viewer’s will.
Sandra’s acrylic paintings are approach in the same direct bold manner as her watercolors. The medium dries quickly so the transition from watercolors to acrylics is null. The time is spent in the planning of the painting. Sometimes, the thinking process will take days.
The subject matter can happen while Chanis proceeds through her every day routines. The bright yellow lemon light that speaks while resting on the blue tile as she walks in the kitvchen to grab that first cup of coffee…, the butternut squash cut in half that was going to be a soup…, the blue egg from her chickens…, the strange gourds that seem to be dancing… All the every day objects or family become an excuse to paint her curious mind.
Crystal marble is an extremely dense and hard to carve stone. An abstract seated figure resting comfortable on the elbows glows with a translucent and subtle lavender tone.
Frivolous: Exhibition in 2019 (From the Frivolous Series)
The sculptor went into a meditative state of emptying the mind before starting to touch the clay. No external influences. No thoughts. Just the energies that make the spirit of art. The hands start to move, one shape leads to another. In the end, all shapes and heads seem to be freely exchanging ideas: Think Tank!
In private collection.
From the Fullness of the Heart, the Mouth Speaks
Dr. Livingston I Pressume?
Think Tank
Shall We Dance?
This sculpture took ten years to make.
About sculpting: Decisions have to be made ahead of starting. The sculptor has to SEE the shapes BEFORE starting that first pitch. Once started, there is no turning back. There is room for details as bodies are being sculpted; ankle turning this way, that way, a torso turned to right or left, etc. But the artist has to be able to see the figures in three dimensional manner. For this sculpture, Sandra had no real models They are project of her imagination and of Sandra’s extensive knowledge of drawing and painting of the human figure.
After running a marathon and seeing hundreds of bodies around her, she started the Genesis series. Marble is the most exciting material to work with when taking a figurative challenge. Sandra wanted to conquer the human anatomy in 3D. And as in the marathon, in which all bodies where intermingling energy into one another, this sculpture flows from one figure to another becoming in the end, a tree of life.
(back) 18” x 18” x 24” without base
Carrara marble (side)
(side)
The Sister Series came to fruition after a trip to Greece. While in Crete, Sandra learned of hidden messages passed from one women to another in order to gain political and family advantages. In this series, Sandra has imbeded secret messages in the texture of the gowns.
The process is extensive. Raw clay is imbeded with patterns and secret messages. An undercoat is applied, several layers of glaze are added and fired at high temperature fusing the glazes.
The Sisters evolved to Warrior powerful women, to Guardian Sentinels, to Migrants Families.
Clay
High Fire Stoneware (36”h x 6.5”w x 12”d) This long neck migrant is carrying his family inside his cloak, maintaining vigil, standing regally and independently from the tribe.
High Fire Stoneware (31”h x 10”w x 12”d) This female sentinel warrior is ready for battle with her earrings made out of computer parts that carry the knowledge and force needed for combat.
The mother of the family is carrying all her eggs inside the bottom of her cloak. All her future is within her. (As a group: 23”h x 17”w x 10”d)
High Fire Stoneware (23”h x 13”w x 12”d) Completed in 2021 the joyful sentinel is floating in air.
Plein-Aire Watercolors provide the instant expression of displaying the fleeting, ever changing, yet the constant light that bounces off surrounding trees and surfaces that varied by location and time of day. Chanis watercolors are executed in less than a hour. Total absorption occurs prior to taking the first stroke. With very little drawing, the paint is splashed boldly and directly on the paper maintaining that first brush stroke as the final color that the brilliant white paper light reflects through the watercolor paint.
Plein-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches paper. 24”h x 18”w. This watercolor is executed quickly and boldly with as few brush strokes as possible in order to maintain the brilliance of the white paper coming through the Windsor & Newton watercolors.
Plein-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches watercolor paper. (24”h x 18”w) An afternoon at the Wild Animal Park Zoo in
Plein-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches paper with Windsor & Newton professional watercolors. (24”h x 18”w) Waiting for morning to pass went to our marvelous hotel in Goleta, Santa Barbara, and painted their landscapes on a daily basis.
Plein-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches paper (24”h x 18”w) Started to paint and suddenly, the skies closed up and started to rain! Quickly took cover under the thick canopy and finished the painting trying to remember that fleeting light that can be seen at the very end of the path.
Plein-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches paper (24”h x 18”w). Hosp Park in Carlsbad is one of my favorite places to paint. The flickering light bouncing from the eucalyptus trees…, with the lagoon blues playing through the trunks…, with the blue skies…, the breeze flowing…, it’s just magical!
Watercolor on 300mg Arches paper (24”h x 18”w) My best friend from childhood, Ica, went to the market and took this photo thinking of me. She sent it to me and I HAD to paint it, with a few changes, off course.
Plein-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches paper. (24”h x 18”w) Walking through Hosp Park in Carlsbad at around 3pm. to find a place to paint, looked up and… wham!… saw the red clay. Stopped, sat and started to quickly paint before the light on the red clay was gone.
Pleinp-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches paper )24”h x 18”w) Hosp Park in Carlsbad is one of my favorites places to paint. It has these rhythmic vertical trunks that undulate with the terrain as if in a musical symphony accompanied by the staccato of the bouncing fleeting light.
Plein-aire watercolor on 300mg Arches paper with Windsor & Newton professional watercolors. (24”hh x 18”w). Took my grandchildren to their tennis lessons and while waiting found this incredible wild meadow next to the walk. It was really fun to paint.
These two larger marbles were the first size-weight challenge for Chanis. Rondo is an abstract figurative sculpture that, as the title implies, can be turned every which way and the rhythm and shapes of the sculpture remain the same.
Eclipse This stone seems to fold, sway. But no… Its a rock dug from Palomar mountain in San Diego, CA. The flatness and weight of it was monumental. Sandra left the edges of the stone in the raw as contract with the polished front and back surfaces. Chanis wanted the rock to “bend” at the collision of the ball, the round shape pierced by stainless steel rod. The long rods installed behind the stone sway with the wind making it a very kinetic sculpture that is meant to be installed outside.
at SD Botanical Gardens
(sold)
