About Sarah

"My paintings and screen prints are colourful, uplifting, and often iconic, evoking an emotional response from past memories, or of life here in Cornwall.

In my gallery you’ll find images of wild swimmers, divers, boats, and seafood, in a vintage style but with contemporary colour, including fluorescent paints.

I’ve always been drawn to Graphic Art: classic vintage posters and book illustrations; the light and shadow in 40’s film noir, and the clothes and style that goes with them are all influences on my work. And being a bit of a drama queen myself, my images are often quite striking. My images often portray strong females inspired by my sea-swimming friends here, sometimes combined with images taken from black and white photos of the Olympics in the twenties and thirties, or films from the forties.

I love to sketch outdoors, and to get messy with paint and inks back in the studio and use traditional materials. The only digital elements in my work are the photos I take as reference when I’m out and about. The processes I use would’ve been used back in the nineteen twenties and thirties: I love the idea that I could’ve been working on my art in exactly the same way a hundred years ago.

I enjoy mixing buttery paint with a palette knife or creating my own colours from just a few tubes of pigment and lots of water. When I’m printmaking, carving lino with traditional tools or cutting stencils from newsprint paper with a surgical scalpel for my screen prints, and mixing printing inks to create the pot of perfect colour I’m completely absorbed. Time stands still.  When people ask me how long it has taken to create a certain painting I tell them it’s taken a lifetime of honing my skills….

Since starting the gallery three years ago my paintings and screen prints have gone to the US, Canada, Germany, South America, India, China and Singapore. But lots have also found their way into homes right here all around Cornwall. It means the people who I live with here find my art authentic, inspiring and relatable. And that makes me very happy."