About Sarah

Trained as a graphic designer and illustrator in Brighton, Sarah has enjoyed a diverse, creative career as an Art practitioner and educator. She creates both decorative and functional pieces including wall hangings, embroidered textile collages and mixed media paintings using traditional techniques such as block-printing, patchwork, quilting and embroidery. Sarah’s work is an exploration of colour and an abstract interpretation of her local environment made with fabric sourced from vintage finds, remnants and dead stock. Starting points can be a simple fragment of cloth or a shape or pattern in the landscape. Sarah is based in Sussex, exhibits locally and shows work at The Shoreham Art Gallery and Atelier Beside the Sea.

Influences

Colour is probably the dominant element in my work…. infinite and unexpected sensations can be created by playing with colour balance, interaction and pattern. 

 I believe a design training can potentially translate into any medium and teaching art has enabled me to experiment diversely.  Textiles though, has emerged as my preoccupation with frequent diversions into print, paint and collage. I love to chop and change within the media to create functional and decorative work. 

 My wall hangings and framed pieces are carefully considered blocks of colour, printed or stitched together to recreate abstract reflections of my environment.  I see linear and grid forms in nature and urban settings and these frequently appear in my designs.  I find it difficult to repeat a design exactly and although my functional pieces follow a template, each is unique and handmade. I have no interest in mass production or out-sourcing work; that would take away from the spontaneity of my practice.  

 Like many women of my generation, I grew up with crafts including sewing and knitting; always making or mending something was a given in our household. An early memory is of scrutinising a fine crochet blanket, which I still own. No two squares possess the same combination of colours and learning how they interact, emerge or recede, was a revelation that has stayed with me since childhood.

 The techniques I use are traditional such as patchwork, quilting, embroidery and block-printing. Materials are from a variety of sources including vintage finds, remnants, re-purposed household fabrics, tablecloths or garments and dead stock.  

 It has been validating to see establishment recognition of domestic and art textiles in recent years with major shows of work by women including Sonia Delaunay, Anni Albers, Sophie Tauber-Arp and Gees Bend - these women continue to be hugely influential to me.