Arts Commentary by Michael Ernest Sweet  

I won’t claim to be writing a review of the art exhibit “Broken Horses and Spotted Cattle”. I have not seen the show and the artist is my aunt. However, this does not preclude me from writing about the artist and her work. Although my opinion may be biased, I know her work and I know her subject – farm animals.

Sweet’s exhibit “Broken Horses and Spotted Cattle” will open July 2, 2008 at 7PM in the beautiful Funday Bay town of Truro, Nova Scotia. Patrons will bear witness to the striking art that I have not only grown up with but have grown to admire deeply.  My aunt’s work is breathtaking in its realism; a realism that only a true country boy (or girl) can validate with enthusiasm. From the blue bristles of a cow’s rope halter to a stray stirrup in “Things from the Barn,” Sweet knows intimately how to transport and inspire those of us who have grown up around a farm. At once her work takes you to a place of memories and emotions.

Many artists work with subjects from the farm – cattle, horses and dogs are common on canvas. Additionally, many artists, as a quick internet search will confirm, do the job well. The ability to paint a horse in striking reality is not a feat belonging solely to my aunt. What she does do is surpass a veneer of artificiality that many fail to defeat. Dozens of animal artists paint their subjects with a ‘removed’ perspective akin to a colonialist painting of an African jungle. The paintings are realistic and detailed but are clouded with a distracting haze of perfection that simply is not found in the barnyard. My aunt paints the way we ‘horse people’ know it to be down to the last horseshoe on the wall. There is a roughness to her approach that does justice to themes as grand as ‘rural life’. Anyone serious about the farm should own one of my aunt’s paintings. My own Montreal high-rise apartment features one and it takes me home to the farm at every glance.

Susan Sweet’s work and contact information may be viewed by clicking here.