Led by colour
About Me
I’m Sarah, an artist based in Sussex
I paint re-imagined, local landscapes, using vibrant colour to express my emotional connection to the world as I experience it.
I hope you love them as much as I do.
Story time…
I started out several years ago on an easel in the corner of my dining room.
I was creating paintings in between school runs and bedtimes. Now I’m working in my own little home studio. I've had three successful solo exhibitions, numerous group shows and been commissioned by our district council to create a series of paintings for their year of culture.
Read more about my Horsham Year of Culture project just here.
Painting is a way for me to express and share my joy and love of the amazing landscapes I find myself in.
I have spent over twenty years exploring colour and perfecting a painting style which is unique to me. I feel especially privileged to be able to share my colourful experience of the world with you.
Spending time outside is the most assured way to fill up my inspiration cup.
Sunsets are always full of promise and spread the most glorious light across a landscape. Sunrises are a little harder to enjoy because they require such an early start.
Sussex is a crazy, beautiful place, every change of light produces a different mood and a different landscape. I adore doing commissions of landscapes that are special to people.
Inspiration
I try to paint the peaceful, quiet hope and wonder I feel when I experience the sunlight touching the landscape in a new and beautiful way.
I can not help but be inspired by the South Downs, the rolling hills and clumps of trees endlessly fascinate me.
Roam
Get in touch for original commissions of your favourite landscapes.
My Process
Sunset
I work with charcoal, pencil and my camera to record the shapes and lines I see in the landscape.
Composing and re-imagining the landscape in my studio is an integral part of my process. I arrange, overlap and simplify a number of views to recreate an overall impression of the landscape rather than a static, photographic one.
I am fascinated with our emotional connections to colour.
I use bold, rich choices to express how I’ve experienced a landscape.
It can take a few days or even weeks of work in the studio for an idea to solidify.
On occasion, I have dreamed of my final painting before an idea has come to fruition on paper.
My artworks can be equally cathartic and arduous to produce, often reducing me to tears of frustration and filling me with joy on the same day. I paint incredibly slowly and precisely, carefully blending colours and defining edges to produce my distinctive style.
Losing time, dreaming about a painting, forgetting to feed my children and thinking obsessively about colour are all perfectly natural parts of my painting process.
Present
Creating with colour
Natural details
I find colour fascinating, how different people see it and react to it.
People often comment that I must see things differently to them – I suspect that I just look harder and for longer, I try to find a tiny bit of colour in something and exaggerate it, to capture a perfect moment.
If you are interested in learning more about using colour in your own art, I offer workshops for all abilities.
