S hara Hughes uses dizzying brushwork, vibrant colors, and shifting perspectives to make paintings that defy many of the existing conventions associated with the landscape genre, of which Stairway to Heaven (2018)—inspired by Newport's Purgatory Chasm—is a dazzling, chromatic example which brims with a distinct kinetic, fluid energy. Exhibited in both Sun Salutations at Newport Art Museum, Newport in 2018 and Shara Hughes: On Edge at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in 2021-2022, the current work is a monumental ode to the natural wonders of Newport's spectacular geographic terrain. Natural motifs and patterned elements recur throughout Hughes’s pictures: surreal vegatation, floating moons, distorted reflections in bodies of water, and blazing sunlight appear in various permutations. Hughes' vivid and fantastical landscapes launched her into the global art scene, with Hughes being marked with her first solo exhibition in Mainland China for the exhibition, Shara Hughes: The Bridge, at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, an exciting tribute to the artist. Building on a visual vocabulary of the early modernist painters, Hughes transposes the psychological complexity of her interior world into verdant and layered pictorial spaces. Blending aspects of abstraction and representation, Hughes often experiments with her image making, such as mixing pigments atop her canvases, to encourage new ways of seeing.

Often referred to as a landscape painter, Hughes sees her paintings as “not really about landscapes” at all. Working intuitively, the artist’s colourful paintings do not depict places real or imagined, but instead manifest a phycological complexity which open themselves up to the memories and experience of the viewer. Giving loose form to rippling water, gnarled vegetation and floating staircases, the present work bridges the abstract and the representational, bringing to life a world that is simultaneously beautiful and chaotic.

As part of Shara Hughes: Sun Salutations exhibition at the Newport Art Museum in 2018, Hughes created three monumental paintings, including Stairway to Heaven, inspired by Newport's Purgatory Chasm. According to the artist, "When I've spent t.mes in Newport it has been very apparent how important water is to the shape of the landscape, as well as the shape of the community. It seems we're always aligning ourselves towards the ocean. We face our homes out to it, we curve roads and trails around it, and our entire ecosystem depends on it. I wanted to make three prominent paintings that were shaped and linked by water, and to use primary colours. There's something about pure, unmixed colour that gives the work a sharpness - the sun is crisper, the reflections are sharper, and it made sense to me to incorporate that kind of visual language." Infused with a vibrant harmony of the organic, the personal, and the surreal, the present work is a prime example of Hughes’ dynamic painterly style.

莎拉・休斯從不遵循風景畫派的常規慣例，她運用令人眼花繚亂的筆觸、鮮豔亮麗的色彩以及遊移多變的視角，塑造出奇幻秀麗的風景，例如《通往天堂的階梯》（2018年作），該畫以美國紐波特的煉獄峽谷為靈感，色彩斑斕無比，令人目不暇接，一股無拘無束的能量就此傾瀉而出。至於本作《通往天堂的階梯》亦曾於紐波特藝術博物館的「向太陽致敬」[sts1] （2018年）及聖路易斯當代藝術博物館的「莎拉・休斯：焦炙邊緣」[sts2] （2021–2022年）展出，藝術家以這幅巨型作品表達她對紐波特奇特壯麗的天然地貌的讚歎。在休斯的作品中，自然圖案和花紋元素反復出現，包括超現實的花草植物、漂浮半空的月亮、水面的扭曲倒影和熾熱的陽光，全部以錯落有致的多樣方式呈現眼前。休斯生動而奇幻的風景，成功將她推往藝術界的國際舞台。2021年，上海余德耀美術館舉辦「莎拉・休斯：橋」[sts3] ，這是她在中國內地的首場個展，堪稱其藝術生涯的里程碑。休斯借早期現代主義畫家的視覺語彙為基礎開展創作，將她內心世界錯綜複雜的心理狀態，轉化為鬱鬱蔥蔥、層層交疊的圖像空間。她融合抽象和具象的各方面特色，經常在圖像創作上進行實驗，例如直接在畫布上混和顏料，藉此催生嶄新的觀看方式。

休斯雖然常被稱為風景畫家，但她認為自己的畫作幾乎「與風景無甚關係」。休斯憑直覺創作，她筆下繽紛燦爛的風景並不是任何真實甚至想像的地方，而是代表一種猶如藻類生長結構般的複雜網絡；藝術家任由作品敞開自身，讓觀者的記憶和體驗引領視角。水面晃盪的漣漪、大片扭曲變形的植物、懸浮的樓梯，全部以飄渺不定的形態顯現；這幅作品猶如一道接連抽象與具象的橋，令一個斑斕而凌亂的世界活現眼前。

2018年，紐波特藝術博物館舉行個展「莎拉・休斯：向太陽致敬」，休斯特意為這次展覽創作了三幅巨型畫作，而這幅以美國紐波特的煉獄峽為靈感的《通往天堂的階梯》就是中一幅。據休斯說：「在紐波特的日子中，我明顯觀察到水對於風景地貌以至人類社群的形態都攸關重要。我們似乎總是不斷讓自身趨近海洋；我們讓家園面朝大海，我們沿著海岸修建蜿蜒的道路和彎曲的小徑，連整個地球的生態系統也依賴海洋生存。因此，我想創作三幅鮮明奪目的畫作，以水塑造畫面並扣連起三者。我也想採用原色，未經混合的純粹色彩有著某種特質，能賦予作品清晰銳利的效果——陽光更熾烈耀眼，倒影更了然分明；對我而言，將這種視覺語言融入作品是合情合理的。」這幅畫作充滿生機活力、個人情感和超現實色彩，體現休斯翩然靈動的絢爛風格，是她最出類拔萃的佳作之一。