Sarah Pater's reductive paintings work in concert with the more imagistic ones to illuminate painting ideas within each in a reciprocal way. These paintings appear together and "lean" on each other for context and resonance. "I often think about the viewer having visual/bodily memory of shapes and colors, and I intentionally repeat elements to create through-lines and resonance between paintings. I designed them to inhabit the same room and inform each other."

Pater's work blurs the aesthetics of boredom and attention with office-leisure-domestic design, daily experiences, and painting conventions. In each painting, she shifts the subject and emphasis, sets particular emotional tones and utilizes the components in different ways, while maintaining continuity from painting to painting.