Sara Bridgman

Sara Bridgman lived in and through art for her 69 years on Earth. Her paintings are inhabited by lively spirits and layered in colorful mystery. Recurring characters in Sara’s paintings provide clues to the narrative of an entire opera yet to be revealed. Mary Francis La’Monge was one of Sara’s beloved Scottish Terriers, and is a prominent character in Sara’s art and imagination. In her book titled Mary Francis Book, Sara writes that Mary Francis was once “...lured by forces unknown to a painting called Elsewhere and she stepped into it. Once inside she found herself to be where she belonged and she never wanted to get out. Since that day, she lived in Elsewhere forever and ever.” Elsewhere is later described in Sara’s Mary Francis Book as a place “where unbelievable goodness becomes true.”  

For the last 30 years of Sara’s life, she lived in Charlotte, VT, on the land she had lived as a child. This is a place with magical beauty made tangible by swaying cedars and spirited stones along the shores of Lake Champlain. Sara’s paintings explore landscapes and memories glimpsed in a lonely village through a window, just behind a curtain, up a staircase or through a door ajar. Her oil paintings, collage books, and etchings come together to show her vision of the world. Her work tells stories of mystery, whimsy, humor, sorrow, and magic. She created much of her work in her studio, Chapel Owl, where she learned to turn negative into positive, and how to walk into a painting, and out again. Perhaps even in her time on Earth, she lived in Elsewhere, at least through her art. And, surely, she is there now forever and ever.