Some artists follow a purposefully wandering, evolving path, seeking out new expressive avenues as they go. Others find their groove and stick to it, honing and refining a particular, familiar subject or style. Santa Barbara painter Leslie Lewis Sigler belongs to the latter category. Over many years, in many exhibitions locally and beyond, she has become closely identified and respected for her super-realist paintings of silverware — heirlooms given their close-up — with mesmerizing optical effects and dazzling iridescent surfaces.
Sigler’s current show at Sullivan Goss, with the telling moniker Kindred, presents more of the same imagery and technical finesse we have come to know and love, but with a slightly thickening plot this time out. The small gathering of new paintings in the entrance gallery culls paintings of silverware and the ceramic finery of China — the good stuff — alongside paintings of tablecloths and dainty fabric pieces.
True to the show’s title and the paintings’ often evocative titles, the paintings feel like “kindred spirits,” while a fresh approach to connotative narratives and possible kinfolk associations enter into the equation.