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San Gabriel, CA      2026

A selection of artworks from 2021 -2026

Artists and Makers Gallery, San Gabriel – 04/25/2026 through Saturday, 06/08/2026

“Sarah Stone is a magician, conjuring up fantastical images, mysterious moments in time that seem paradoxically keenly observed, half-remembered and totally fabricated. Brilliantly colored, these vibrant images of people and animals exist in a flattened, hypothetical and hallucinogenic space. Surrounding these protagonists in their own intimate worlds are neon swirling patterns reminiscent of the visual language of Aboriginal, Indigenous and American Op and Pop Art painting. Memory – individual, personal and collective – merges seamlessly in these compelling narratives, where nothing is as it seems.

Stone’s practice is firmly grounded in drawing, whether from her own photographs, or from direct observation. Keenly rendered, her figures move from detailed naturalistic depictions to ghostly, dream-like mythological archetypes which highlight her technical virtuosity. The quixotic presence of solitary women, engaged in states of introspection and accompanied by their thoughts, imaginings, or even astral projections, suggests not isolation but a rich interiority. That the beautifully rendered subjects are ordinary people in domestic settings, gazing into their phones or mirrors, points less to disconnection than to contemporary modes of self-care.  These moments propose a quiet space between a calm inner world and a chaotic outer environment. Noise and chatter are held at bay.

While many of these paintings are complex psychological portraits requiring concentrated analysis, Stone also displays her playful side with the charming and spirited rodeo series. Based on actual photographs, Stone simplified the images so that the animals appear to be flying, somersaulting and jumping in space apparently unimpeded by gravity. Painted in a bold, graphic style, with crisp hard edges and flat, unmodulated colors, these vividly unbridled animals exist in an invented landscape. Delineated with gusto, these, like all of Stone’s works are quite formally refined.

While the cows and bulls move with a charged, almost theatrical energy, Stone turns her attention to another order of animal, one rooted in myth. Held within a centered circular field inside a square panel, a bat, a buck, an owl, a coyote and a roadrunner gather—not as specimens, but spirits. They read as emblems, as carriers of older knowledge. In folk traditions, such creatures arrive as messengers between worlds, each with different strengths: the swiftness of the deer, the owl’s all-knowing wisdom, the coyote’s restless trickster spirit. Rendered with careful attention, these beings are not only depicted but represent Stone’s reverence for all living creatures.

Stone is a consummate painter and an adroit visual storyteller whose stellar cast of characters from both the human and animal kingdom inhabit and animate a complex and visionary landscape. Her work is a cautionary tale which asks the viewer to consider what stories we tell ourselves, how our relationships to each other and technology will limit or change us, and what role do we play in the preservation or destruction of the planet.

Nancy Kay Turner

Pasadena, CA.