Biography

Sarah, 1997, born in Antrim, Northern Ireland, completed her BA in fine art (Painting) at Camberwell College of Arts, London in 2022. She was represented by Made in the Arts London where she exhibited and sold work at the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead. She won the Big Walls and Windows Project in 2021 and her most recent work was an outdoor wall mural that highlighted buildings of London heritage. Sarah's work has been published in catalogues and a debut magazine, Nurture.

Artist Statement

13th April 2025, Pamplona

My paintings explore landscapes, memory and belonging. I have moved around different countries from Northern Ireland, London and Spain and these different locations have influenced my artistic outcomes. In particular there are familiar landscapes of Northern Ireland that depict scenes of the old zoo. The old Bellvue zoo is abandoned and the historic and grand stairway is depicted in two paintings "Bellevue zoo", 2020 and "Inner Suburban Villiage, (Rathcoole)", 2020. Rathcoole, an estate on the edge of Belfast is depicted with its iconic four buildings and now as only three buildings remain the painting is containing the memory of a changing landscape. This containment of memory takes different forms and in a way that is more implicit. In another painting there is a heraldic lion that hides under the lorry in "20000KG", 2020 this is a reference to the load capacity of the lorry trailer. This painting uses the symbol of the lion as an aparation of the past aristocracies that would have walked through the stairway of Bellvue zoo. This play on the narratives of the past looks beneath the surface to discover the realm of hidden meanings that can be associated with the symbol of the lion and the connection to the British colonies. While exploring landscape painting I am also interested in exploring ideas within the infrastructure. The inconspicuous bilingual road sign depicted in "Dark Horse", 2020 transports the thought of the future Irish language act for Northern Ireland in the good friday agreement. Here painting is being used as a medium to gain an understanding about the sense of belonging to a country such as Northern Ireland where the Irish language is a second thought. This interest in road signs and belonging lead me to create my proposal for the Big Walls and Windows Award in 2021. 

I use mostly acrylic for my big paintings and I stretch all my canvas with cotton 15oz, the canvas texture is thick and heavy and it can hold a lot of paint. Recently I have been exploring small landscapes in oil. In "La Puerta del Socorro", 2024 the oil paint drips down to take the forms of the purple fountain beech trees that hang over the portal to the city of Pamplona. They are like guardians to the victims of the Spanish civil war where they had been killed. I have been exploring the subject of historical memory and the importance of remembrance and similarly I had painted "The Viaduct", 2020 and this was the location of the battle of Culloden and a burial site for the Scottish victims.

My most recent painting has been "Red Cabin in the Woods", 2025 I am drawn to the complex forms of the forest and our place amongst it. The natural world is an important subject as is the lighting that takes the form of magical realism. Since taking charcoal clases at La casa de la Juventud I have become more attuned to the use of light and tone in my paintings. I am working on paintings that further explores ideas of magical realism and the natural world.

Exhibitions

(coming soon) 2025, Samadhi, Pamplona

2024, ‘New Paintings’, Goxolatte, Pamplona, Spain

2023, London Heritage Mural, Wandsworth, St Anne’s Hill, London

2022, Painting Degree Show Summer 2*0*2*2’, University of the Arts, London (Camberwell)

2022, Affordable Art Fair, Hamstead, Made in the Arts London

2022, ‘we’re watching you’, Southwark Park Galleries, London

2021, Big Walls and Windows Project, Camberwell College of Arts, London

2019, Camberwell New Art, Camberwell Space, Camberwell college of Arts, London

2018, ‘Identity’, Artcetera Studios, Belfast, Northern Ireland

2017, ‘Enshrine’, Artcetera Studios, Belfast, Northern Ireland

2016, Young Artist of the Year Awards NI, The Braid, Ballymena, Northern Ireland

Publications

Nurture Magazine, 2020, ‘Somewhere in and between’, Mathew Darby

Interviews

Big walls and Windows 2021, University of the Arts, London