Sarah Garforth

Sarah is a Yorkshire landscape artist, living and working in Ramsgill, a rural village in Upper Nidderdale. Since graduating from the University of Northumbria in 1994 she has enjoyed a varied career which has taken her to far reaching places as a travel artist and back to her roots in the Yorkshire Dales using the rivers, reservoirs and bridle paths as her inspiration.

"My sketchbooks have been an integral part of my work for years and becoming increasingly so. They get filled with ideas, trying to emulate a mood or weather with a simple gesture, allowing myself to play with colour, mark making and found objects. I try to detach myself from the pressure of what it will become and to just enjoy being on location.

In my current work I'm trying to bridge the gap. By continuing with the idea of play, the piece can evolve rather than predetermining elements. I have introduced mixed media into oils, using cold wax, marble dust, graphite, R&F pigment sticks and gamsol, applying with spatulas, scrapers, and knives, with very little brush work. By working in layers I can scrape back and draw back into the paint, in a sgraffito manner, connecting back to the original image."