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Sterling Wells

@sterlingpastel

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these days, just trying to make the stone feel more stony

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This is the final week of the Open Call Summer Show @FrancisGallery. Congrats and thank you to the team and everyone involved for bringing us all together. Thank you especially to the six jurors for awarding my piece “Moules Marinières” with the Clara Award for Figurative Painting. It’s so validating for my work to be recognized by such a diverse group of acclaimed multi-hyphenate creators of culture, who, in the words of the inimitable Rosa Park, “reflect the simple truth [that] genuine support for artists exists within and beyond the traditional artworld.” by @sterlingpastel

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a month ago

Please join us tomorrow July 10, 6-8pm for the opening of Overflow, a site-responsive Skowhegan alumni group show @gallery198_brooklyn (198 24th Street, Brooklyn) curated by @andrew_lafarge_hamill featuring 21 artists whose work explores relationships to water, urban infrastructure, and the climate crisis. I am excited to be participating in this convocation of like-minded friends, colleagues, and artists I admire. If I still lived in NYC I would have made something in the Gowanus Canal but alas. My piece depicts a mucky pond with urban weeds formed by discharge from a storm drain in Palos Verdes which feels out of place along the otherwise seemingly pristine coastline. Show flyer in last slide.

Artists: Taylor Baldwin, Lili Chin, Nancy Cohen, Oscar Rene Cornejo, Jen De Los Reyes, Erik Deluca, Elizabeth Demaray, Sophie Grant, Elizabeth Flood, Andrew LaFarge Hamill, Sujin Lim, Marie Lorenz, Mary Mattingly, Landon Newton, Chris Papa, Jean Shin, Deborah Wasserman, Sterling Wells, Marisa Williamson, Jack-Arthur Wood, and Brian Zegeer. by @sterlingpastel

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3 months ago

Many thanks to @canada.nyc for including this piece in their inspired summer show “Plants, Animals, Sky” on view until August 7. So many gems. Such wonderful company.

(Please go back two posts for more info about this piece which depicts the former home and studio of a sculptor in Altadena)

“662 E Calaveras St”
2025
watercolor on paper
31 1/4 x 20 3/4” by @sterlingpastel

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3 months ago

This piece, San Gabriel River, is currently on view in the show “Twilight Zone” at Arsenal Contemporary, located at 21 Cortlandt Alley 2nd Fl., NY, NY. Many thanks to curators Davida Nemeroff and Claudia Trahan. The show is on until June 6, and will be open late on Friday May 15 for Tribeca Gallery Night.

@arsenalcontemporary
@dahveeduh
@claudiaisabelletrahan

San Gabriel River depicts the northernmost resident population of East Pacific Green Sea Turtle, a species that reflects a rare conservation success story, recently re-classified from endangered to threatened, largely due to protection of their nesting beaches in Mexico over the past 25 years. These turtles were first documented in the San Gabriel River in 2008, and the population has grown to near 100 today. They enjoy the warm, calm water, and plentiful algae. The site where I painted is just off a bike path, and there were many spectators freely observing these peaceful, majestic animals circling in the current. They were all different colors, with variously patterned shells. One shell is covered with a species of barnacle that only grows on sea turtles. Another has what I assume to be a tracking device glued to it. The last slide shows what I got down over three days of working from life, before distinctly rendering each turtle in studio. by @sterlingpastel

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5 months ago

Every Spring for the past eight years, I have painted poppies. Last year, I did them in Altadena. The houses were gone but every yard was full of oblivious blossoms. This piece, titled “662 E Calaveras St”, depicts the former home and studio of father and son sculptors Richard and Christopher Moore. I found out about them on the website for the Pasadena Society of Artists. I arranged their whimsical scrap metal sculptures and flowers made from barbed wire amidst the real flowers. In the background were collapsed shelves of metal stock and a gantry.

Many thanks to photographer Kevin Cooley for sharing these pictures he took when he stumbled upon me working @kevincooley_ by @sterlingpastel

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6 months ago

Chatsworth Nike Missile Site

Operational from 1956-1974, it was one of sixteen Nike sites that encircled Los Angeles, defending the aerospace industry during the Cold War. Today, it’s a training ground for LAPD’s bomb squad and SWAT teams. Off in the distance, gated communities with rows of identical suburban houses in Porter Ranch.

Thanks for taking me there @discountfabric @willbruno by @sterlingpastel

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8 months ago

FOG Design + Art @fogfair with @nightgallery
Jan 21-25, 2026
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco

“Steep Ravine”
“Fort Point”
“Albany Bulb” by @sterlingpastel

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9 months ago

The gallery is open until 5 today and from 12-5 tomorrow❣️”Triangle Projects Presents!” is on view through February 7.

Carly Sheehan
These too can hold you, 2025
Acrylic, zip-ties, nitrile gloves, and baby’s breath on canvas
18 x 22 in.

Emile Mausner The Heels She Wore, 2022 Watercolor on rag mounted on panel in zebrawood frame
9 x 12 in.

Jenny Gagalka
The Big One 1, 2025
Chalk pastel on paper
18 x 24 in.

Sterling Wells
Bringing the tide inside (Ballona Creek), 2024
Found bicycle, watercolor on paper, wood, hardware, tidal residue
88 x 31 x 63 in.

Images courtesy Josh Schaedel taken in Chung King Road by @sterlingpastel

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9 months ago

Sterling Wells paints landscapes already in flux. Working from floating structures anchored in open bays, he documents places where human impact is unavoidable, but beauty hasn’t disappeared. The work lives in the uneasy middle ground between intervention and awe. taken in Los Angeles, California by @sterlingpastel

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10 months ago

Three weeks painting and camping in the San Francisco Bay area, in preparation for the @fogfair in January with @nightgallery by @sterlingpastel

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a year ago

Meet Sterling Wells @sterlingpastel, an LA–based artist whose watercolor on paper is featured in the exhibition Line, Smudge, Shade: Contemporary Drawing in Our Los Angeles 🌀 His art has been shown at Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Museum of Art at Commonwealth & Council; MOCA Tucson; and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Australia.

He takes an unconventional approach to plein-air painting by physically immersing himself in the neglected urban waterways of the city, using water directly from those sources to create his paintings.

In Absorption and Degradation (2018/2025), he prepared his work in the Arroyo Seco River, where water flows from the San Gabriel Mountains to eventually join the LA River. At the intersection of natural and urban landscapes, his observational, temporal process reflects the ecological degradation of the waterways as a consequence of human encroachment over the years.

Swipe to learn about his process in his own words →

Read more about his relationship to drawing and LA by visiting the exhibition page at the link in bio. Then check out his work in Line, Smudge, Shade, on view now until January 4, 2026.

Please note that our galleries will be closed on Thursday, November 27 but will reopen for the weekend. Visit us Friday, Saturday, and/or Sunday of the holiday week from 11 am to 6 pm.

Photo 1: Nik Massey
Photos 2-5: courtesy of the artist
Photo 6: Jeff McLane

#BentonMuseumofArt #LineSmudgeShade #SterlingWells by @sterlingpastel

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a year ago

Many thanks to Salim Moore @thekingofjazz for curating my piece “Absorption and Degradation” (2018/2025) into the terrific show “Line, Smudge, Shade: Contemporary Drawing in Our Los Angeles”, on view until January 2 at the stunning Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College @bentonatpomona by @sterlingpastel

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a year ago