On International Women’s Day it seems appropriate to bring a focus on women in Phyllis Sloane’s art. During the years of raising her children, Phyllis drew and painted her three young children; then formed a sketch group with several artist friends; “I sketched from life one day a week. We either hired models or enlisted friends to pose”. These early sketches formed the basis for many later prints and paintings.
In the 1970’s, Phyllis did a number of large paintings featuring two women in interiors. In an artist’s talk she gave the morning after the opening of her 2004 Retrospective Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada, a gathering of mostly young women questioned Phyllis on her motivation in depicting mainly women in her figurative work. She said that mainly women were available to model in those days in her environs. The attendees pressed her on the possible psychological meaning or story behind the depiction of two women together in the paintings. Phyllis denied any intentional story in these works, but admitted that her own mental state ( e.g. loneliness or depression) at any given time could affect her artwork. Always her main concern and challenge was to create a dynamic yet harmonious, balanced composition.
