‘You Can Stay’ is a self-produced exhibition of twelve paintings that I made while living in the mountains of Montana in during the first year of the pandemic. The title of the collection evokes the gentle invitation of Nature in this time of turmoil and isolation: a communion with a natural rhythm...a belonging.

I’ve returned to a richness of color and composition in this body of work, painting with gouache and acrylic on linen. In this wild, boundless setting, the expansiveness and quality of light touches the spiritual. My art nods toward the natural world with an expression and energy beyond representation. Here, color and gesture braid an intimate abstraction, dashing at the pace of light and wind. Reaching beyond the canvas, my inquiry is physical: How does the natural world—its color, its vibration, its sublimity, its transition—feel? How can I come back to this wildness in my body?  The work is emotive, intuitive, and primal. My process is threaded with a spontaneity that limits me from lingering too long in my mind. It becomes a dance of looking and feeling, which lands gently in being. Through the veins of light and color, I hope the work can illuminate shifting energy—in a space, and perhaps in your own body, as a viewer. 

Please inquire for exhibition catalog: studio@alainasullivan.com  

Swallowing Dusk 
2021
Gouache & acrylic on linen
19 x 25 x 2 in





Resilience
2020
Gouache on linen  
13 x 17 x 2 in

One Left 
2020
Gouache on linen
17 x 21 x 2 in





Quaking Aspen
2020
Gouache on linen  
13 x 17 x 2 in

The Shadows Come Sooner 
2020
Gouache on linen  
13 x 17 x 2 in













A Veiled Breath
2020
Gouache & acrylic on linen  
17 x 21 x 2 in

The Green Never Fades 
2021
Gouache & acrylic on linen  
17 x 21 x 2 in






Did You Feel the Moss?
2021
Gouache & acrylic on linen  
17 x 21 x 2 in

Softest Landing 
2021
Gouache & acrylic on linen  
17 x 21 x 2 in














Alpine Honesty
2020
Gouache on linen  
13 x 17 x 2 in

How Many Layers Did You Wear?
2020
Gouache on linen  
13 x 17 x 2 in

Stoic Pine
2021
Gouache & acrylic on linen  
23 x 29 x 2 in

Details
Each painting in this collection is original to the artist and is finished with a custom, natural maple frame.

For more information about these works, additional images, or to inquire about the availability of a piece, please email studio@alainasullivan.com.

‘You Can Stay’ was produced and photographed by Alaina in Big Sky, MT in February 2021.