Emerging Artists | Jason Sacran

Creating mood and meaning

Jason Sacran, Alberta Falls, oil, 16 x 12.

This story was featured in the December 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art December 2013 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

As a youngster growing up in Tennessee, Jason Sacran drew countless action figures; by the time he got to Tennessee Technological University to study art, his figure-drawing teacher said he knew anatomy well enough to teach the class. While figurative works will always interest him—he won a top award in 2011 from the Portrait Society of America—it is the landscape that urgently calls to him these days. “I believe the landscape offers the most perceptually diverse subjects,” Sacran says. “And it is great to be out in nature, painting in the fresh air, hearing the natural noises, and embracing the challenge of the changing light and elements.”

Recently Sacran won three top awards at the annual Plein Air Rockies show and sale held in Estes Park, CO, in August. MORNING CLOUDS, which garnered two awards, is indicative of his spontaneous response to nature and his emphasis on creating scenes that evoke mood and introspection. While in the park during a week-long plein-air painting stay, he was continually drawn to this particular scene. After several days on location in the park, he rose early one morning to find that the atmospheric, muted light was captivating. “I saw the most incredible layering of the dark and illuminant cloud formations—as thick and continuous as I have ever seen them,” he says. The painter says he rushed to set up his easel, grabbed a 16-by-24-inch canvas, and “went to town.”

Jason Sacran, Full Moon Night, oil, 16 x 12.

Sacran also presented nocturnes in the show, a genre that has captured his creative eye more and more. The Arkansas-based artist says he is intrigued by the high-contrast glow of a street lamp or car headlights against an inky black sky. “There is a sort of underlying parallel between these works and myself and maybe people in general,” Sacran says. “Searching for light amidst vast darkness, light can represent the hope, truth, and perseverance in struggling on. Life is full of struggle, in one way or another, and I believe we are all looking for some kind of light.” —Bonnie Gangelhoff

representation
Galerie Kornye West, Fort Worth, TX; Davis & Blevins Gallery, Saint Jo, TX; Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA; Cherry’s Custom Framing & Art Gallery, Carthage, MO; Linda Palmer Gallery, Hot Springs, AR; Laws Interiors & Design, Knoxville, TN; Augusta Wood Ltd, Augusta, MO; jasonsacran.com.