Sarah Winkler Studio

Utah’s varied landscapes include some of the most spectacular red rock slot canyons. In this new piece, a distant in tact desert mountain formation is painted realistically and as it erodes through wind, water and time, the imagery becomes more abstracted, sculpted and minimal. Taking on the smooth surfaces and ribbon banding that you encounter in its slot canyons.

Coral Slot Canyons
40” round. Acrylic on wood panel. 2026
See this painting at Gallery MAR, Park City, UT

Soaking up the winter views at mid mountain.
Love how the piste cuts through the flanking pines in this new painting. Winter in the Rockies is crisp and colorful. The skies put on amazing light shows and the white snow makes everything glisten.

Tall Pines, 60x48” acrylic on panel. This
New painting is featured in my show in Park City. Come celebrate the new work with Sarah Winkler during the opening. Friday Feb 13th, 6-9pm

⚠️WIP 🚧
Channeling the NY Adirondack landscape with blooming spring wildflowers for this, 1 of 3, commissioned works for the Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, NY. A renovation project for their labor and delivery facility. It’s been 2 years in the making and will be installed in 2026 🤞🏻

In 2026, I’ve been inspired to look up up even more than usual. The past year blew my mind with Aurora’s visible far far south, comets passing, massive super moons etc.. so I’ve made it a point in 2026 to photograph skies regularly through the seasons and any major sky shows that grab my attention and speak to the place I find myself located in.

The point of this creative prompt will be to apply these ‘sky discoveries’ in future paintings.

PINK-BLUE SKIES
The soft and dramatic twilight pink to blue sky fades of winter in the Rockies captured over time in these nine photos. I took them at over 8,000-10,000 ft above sea level. The perspective at high altitude in a dry climate with next to no humidity lends Colorado some amazing opportunities to see the phenomenon of Earth’s Shadow”. The pinky blue banding that appears on the horizon at dawn and dusk as the Earth shadow casts through its atmosphere and into outer space . The shadows fringe appears as a dark blue diffused band just above the horizon. Also pink-blue fades can come from an effect called ‘Alpen Glow’. -an optical phenomenon that appears as a horizontal reddish glow near the horizon opposite to the Sun when it dips just below the horizon line. FASCINATING and beautiful 🤩

In my next few posts to follow I will feature some recent and new paintings that have a Pink to Blue fade from either Earth’s Shadow or Alpen glow in them.

CREATIVE PROMPT:
Pick one natural subject for 2026 and photograph it regularly on a schedule to watch it change over time. Your subject may exist close to you as you need to observe it closely and repetitively for one year. For example:
A tree through the seasons.
A water body reflections.
The Sky
The Ocean view
An acre of land.
A patch of forest.
Your garden

Outcome: When you observe a single thing in nature for an extended period of time, it will change how you view and connect with living things around you and your perspective of your place in the network of life of Earth.

If you want to share on IG in a nine grid format some of your discoveries.
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