G'day & Croeso
I'm Sarah, an artist living in North Wales. I collect the moments that stop me in my tracks, then translate them into artworks to try and find out why.
What inspires me
One of the things that I explore is the concept of home. How do I reconcile being in one place while sometimes feeling a pull from another?
I grew up in Australia and now live in Eryri, North Wales. Both hold a place in my heart.
Colour is the unifier and the pacifier. I love that colour can connect a place and time with another, wherever and whenever it is in the world. What interests me most is how the palette can change from day to day, or from one spot to another.
Where I go
Most of my inspiration comes when I'm running. It could be a place that's intimate, where I return time and time again, or an encounter with a new place I may never return to.
Sometimes I come back empty-handed. It fascinates me that a spot which had me spellbound one day can go unnoticed on another.
Other days I run the camera battery flat and before the memory fades I write down the things that gave me meaning.
These journals are where I return to sketch, design, iterate, and struggle, all in an effort to bring those feelings back.
I'm not trying to capture what a place looks like, but what does it feel like to remember it?
Why I create art
I first painted as a reminder of the places I may never see in the same way again. Hanging them around us in our home, I came to an acceptance. One of the best things in life is choice, and one of the hardest things in life is choice!
Back then I was torn on where I wanted to settle. What I learnt was that home is not a place, it's a feeling, and art can take you there wherever you are, the same way that the people and animals you share your life with can.
I sit at my desk and look across the room to a painting of Eucalypts and granite boulders on a misty day, and for a moment I'm back there. Then I glance to another wall and I'm running through the mountains in Eryri on a summer evening. I feel pretty lucky.
What started as paintings of landscapes has evolved into distilling the feeling into a series of moments. Something that I can share with anyone to transport them to another place and time.
That perspective helped me to see things in a different way and trust the path I've chosen. I guess I figured what helped me could help someone else.
That's what I want to give back through my art.