Meet Sarah
This is My Story
From an early age I was driven to create. Even as a small child I was always colouring, drawing, modelling and painting. My family used to joke that if they left something lying around for long enough, I would paint it! I still enjoy decorating shelves, mirrors and odd bits of furniture in a Bloomsbury-type style to brighten up our home.
My first serious attempt at art was a life drawing class in Bristol while my children were very young. This inspired me to start an art degree, but part-way through the course I became captivated by sculpture, and transferred to study ceramics and 3-D art for three years, where I focused mainly on sculpting the human form. I then spent many years working as a ceramic sculptor while supplementing my income working part time in galleries and theatres. In 2007 I took a break from the arts to work full-time as a lecturer at the University of East Anglia, but always continued being creative in my spare time. In 2019 I took early retirement from UEA, which has enabled me to focus more seriously on art once again.
Over the years I have taken numerous short courses in painting, drawing and mosaics, and find inspiration in sculptors such as Giacometti, Rodin, Henry Moore, Mo Jupp, and a diverse range of painters including Manet, Modigliani, Freud, Gauguin, Munnings, Seago, Sickert, Winifred Nicholson and Alice Mumford.
Still life painting is a relatively new departure for me and I love experimenting with different styles: either painting loosely in oils or combining collage and acrylic paint to create texture, colour and depth in a more stylised way. The subject matter is inspired by the flowers I find in the garden and surrounding countryside, and my ever expanding collection of teapots, mugs and vintage jugs.
I enjoy oil painting en plein air when the weather permits, and love both the gentle rolling countryside near my home in south Norfolk and the huge skies and vast desolate beaches of the North Norfolk coastline. My obsession with the human figure continues unabated however: I remain fascinated by the nude and find it hard to resist including at least one person in most of my landscapes!
Having bought a new (second-hand) kiln earlier this year, I am relishing the chance to experiment with clay in new and different ways, but I am always drawn back to the human form. My latest ceramic sculptures focus on trying to capture a human mood or emotion which will engage the viewer by drawing on their own feelings and memories.
My Recent Work
