OPENING RECEPTION: 1ST THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6TH  |  FROM 5-8pm

Sullivan Goss is excited to announce the Gallery’s sixth solo exhibition for American impressionist painter MEREDITH BROOKS ABBOTT.

Among the pantheon of Santa Barbara artists, Meredith has risen to a position as the grande dame of plein air painting. With a decades-long career, she looks for new ways to reprise the delight of valley views and native plants that have beckoned her to paint them for over fifty years. She also challenges herself to put paint to canvas in new ways, experimenting with brush strokes, composition, realism, and the play of light to shadow - all tenets of impressionist painting. Meredith still spends a great portion of time out of doors, waiting to catch the fleeting moment of a breeze across a stand of ceanothus in rapidly changing sunlight. But there is no urgency evident in her confident handling of the paint; the shifting  light and weather are old friends; they’ve worked together for too long now to not understand each other's moods and needs. 

Walking the paths and ridgelines of Carpinteria, Ojai, Ventura and Santa Barbara, Meredith visits and re-visits these views like old friends. She has weathered the painting trends that come and go while remaining faithful to her surroundings, subjects, and personal painting style. She remains steadfast in the recording of landscapes that change slowly with seasons and climate. Meredith is prolific in her output – we have too many paintings to hang in her show, so some have to be kept in the back room – and dedicated to the task of making fine art as often as she can, which means being in her studio most every day.