Selected Works

Isca Greenfield-Sanders’ fifth solo exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery, The Language of Flowers, debuts new mixed media acrylic paintings derived from the rich history of floral paintings. Greenfield-Sanders found inspiration in visits to local and international gardens, botanical illustrations, stained glass, and photogenic drawings. The work of historical women floral painters was of particular interest notably, Clara Peeters, Mary Delaney, and Agnes Northrop. Unlike previous paintings which were based on found imagery, Greenfield-Sanders photographed all her own reference images for this body of work. Borrowing and modernizing the tactics of Renaissance painters, her material process is incredibly thoughtful and inherent to the result of the work.

Beginning with reference images of her own composition, she creates a watercolor on paper which is enlarged, printed, and affixed to the canvas surface. Then she layers the fully fleshed-out acrylic painting on top. Her compositions transport the viewer to an intimate, fleeting moment of observing nature, capturing an experience that would otherwise be lost to time. In many ways, Greenfield-Sanders captures a portrait of nature.

In Bridget Quinn’s essay, “Isca Greenfield-Sanders: The Language of Flowers,” she shares: “What I see, and feel, is Greenfield-Sanders’s portrait of time. This moment and the artist’s attention to it. A rigorous and lovely fixing of the timebound into timelessness. The blooming in the doom, and the beauty of it all.”

This exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated printed catalogue with an essay by writer Bridget Quinn.