Tar

Roofing tar is smeared, gouged, and scraped over a white panel to create several series of wall-mounted work beginning around 2010. The above painting from the Thicket series (72” x 30”) Is one of dozens of pieces beginning in 2012 which evoke both the energy of cotton bolls bursting into view and the labor required to harvest the commodity for market. Arts writer Deidre S. Greben noted of this series “The successive veils of sepia-toned tar residue give Sayre’s composition pictorial depth and a seductive yet discomfiting beauty.”

Below is an example from the Barn series created by Sayre during the same period. Here, the artist again drags tar across the painting’s surface to produce narrow bands reminiscent of sunlight streaming duskily through chinks between the boards of an old barn. 

Tar is an ongoing material for the artist and has found its way into some of the Cross, series, and other newer works.

Above: From “Thicket” series. 72”X42”, Tar and enamel on panel, 2015-19