treasure in stillness

Following winning 1st prize at the Glynn Vivian Open with her work Treasure In Stillness, Sarah was invited to a month long artist residency at G.S. Artists in Swansea, Wales in May 2019. Below are installation photos from the open day presentation showing work made during her time there. The residency project title is also Treasure In Stillness.

Artist statement

I produce work which draws upon woodland structures, natural elements and materials plus personal experiences such as meditation, motherhood and transformation. This project title Treasure In Stillness relates to the wisdom found when one is still and also to the duality of combining an art practice with the challenges of motherhood, with the presence of landscape and being in it the source.

Within the meditation of making work I contemplate the materials and the immense value of our wild places and in considering the wider issues of plastic pollution and climate change I try to use sustainable and natural materials where possible. I make my own oak gall ink and in some works combine it with what I call Moon Drawings. Whilst living in a woodland, I would take night walks and started making photographic pieces during a full moon, setting my camera on a long exposure and using the full moon as a light source with which to draw.

All of the pigments in this project are botanical colour to make inks and paints.

The woodland is large, slow, immersive, all consuming. I hope that these distinctive techniques have the potential to draw interest in towards not only the work, but what it is to fully immerse oneself in a place, to develop awareness and mindfulness, to contemplate the material, the immense value of our wild places and to find what treasures there are in stillness.

This project was generously supported with a Research & Development grant from Arts Council Wales and National Lottery UK.