In this exclusive interview, we delve into the creative world of Sarah, an artist whose journey has led her to the breathtaking Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Check Out Sarah's work HERE
You're originally from Manchester and now reside and create high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. What inspired this move?
I left Manchester when I was a young girl. My father’s aviation career took the family abroad for many years to Malawi, Africa, Brunei, Borneo, Europe and ultimately emigrating permanently to America. I spent five years in the NY metro area for University before moving out West to California with my now husband and studio partner. We spent 18 years in California before finding a beautiful mountain property in the Colorado Rockies. We chose Colorado for the scenic views and outdoorsy mountain lifestyle. We both love to hike, camp, river raft, kayak, bike and van life from place to place. As Earth science buffs, we also love the exposed geology of the West. We live in Morrison, in the Morrison formation of red rocks. A strata of rock that contains the dinosaur bones and stretches for thousands of miles in the Western US from Colorado out to Utah, Montana to New Mexico. The varied terrain of the West, the weather micro climates and four seasons have greatly influenced my work since moving here.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I draw my inspiration from being immersed in scenic nature, outdoors in the landscape. By visiting geologically interesting places like UNESCO World Heritage sites, National Parks and exploring protected and preserved wilderness sanctuaries. It is in these special environments you get a sense of a land untouched by human activity. A place where wild creatures roam freely, the night skies are dark, and the forests and flora continue their ancient perpetual cycles.
How did minerals first make their way into your paintings?
I’m a bit of a ‘rock hound’ collecting samples of rocks from the different landscapes I visit if I think I might do a collection of work around it. River rocks especially are like miniature landscapes in themselves. Tumbled from miles up river, they tell you about the geological story of how the region was formed and how climates have migrated. Their patterns and colors show you mineral content and erosion processes. I use these collection of rocks in a number of ways like color matching paint hues or by simulating their textures in paint layers. I also source crushed mineral in a fine pigment powder to use embedded in the paint.
What message does your art convey?
It’s important to me to maintain that deep connection to a pristine environment and natural circadian rhythms. To watch and learn from nature. Not to meddle and overpower it. To live in harmony with the greater ecosystem knowing that we are just a small part of it.
Do you feel a deeper connection to the Earth when you create?
Many pigments used for painting still come from the Earth like Oxides, Siennas, Cadmiums and Umbers. I add marble dust, gypsum, mica, silt and many others to my work during the creation process. It forges a direct connection to actual places coming through in the materials used and the application of them. In the layers in my paintings, I mimic the geological processes that form landscapes. Like glacially removing paint with rough sand papers and creating water pools of paint and letting them evaporate over time to dry. This is the direct connection to the landscape that comes through in the work.
What makes this connection important to you?
My depictions of the scenic and wild places is abstracted and contemporary leaning. Based on capturing the sensation of place and engaging with the geological formation story. I recreate the experience of being in a landscape through mimicking textures and sampling localized colors. This to me is a more tactile impression of how specific landscapes look the way they do and expresses the genuine awe I have for the beauty of them.
You are involved in the US Department of State's Art in Embassies program. Could you share more about this experience and what it means to you?
Having migrated myself across the World through travels and relocations, I was naturally drawn to the idea of my artwork being a cultural ambassador for the US Dept. of State’s Art in Embassies program. Through this project, I had a piece on loan for 4 years in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, twin city to Boulder, Colorado. The US Ambassador posted to Tajikistan (near the Pamir Mountains) selected my work to travel with him abroad to showcase Colorado Rocky Mountain landscapes to visitors to the US Embassy in Dushanbe during his residency there.
What can we expect to see more of from you in the future?
I am currently developing works exploring circadian rhythms, celestial phenomena and atmospheric conditions over mountain and desert landscapes. I’m also experimenting with coastal and tropical nature based subjects too. In the Summer of 2025, an owner partnership group have invited me over to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland for a stay at their hotel in order to explore the Alpine valley filled with spectacular waterfalls and gain the inspiration on location to then paint for them several personal Swiss Alps landscape commissions for their homes in California, USA and Ireland as well as the hotel’s entryway in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.
What is your favorite piece you have created and why?
Hard to answer, honestly. I love everything in the moment I’m working on it. But as a whole I think the mountain wildflowers series has been so fun to continue to create.
Check Out Sarah's work HERE
Alpine Meadows Sundown
Acrylique sur panneau
48 x 48 x 2.25 in
(121.92 x 121.92 x 5.72 cm)
Sunburst Yellow Mica
Acrylique sur panneau
36 x 36 x 2.25 in
(91.44 x 91.44 x 5.72 cm)
Branch and Ripple
Acrylique sur panneau
48 x 48 x 2.25 in
(121.92 x 121.92 x 5.72 cm)
