Sarah Garforth

Sarah trained at the University of Northumbria where she gained a BA Hons degree in Graphic Design. Her work has gone through many stages of development but she now works mainly in oils and mixed media, using impasto and sgraffito techniques, taking her inspiration from the rivers and reservoirs within a stones throw of her studio in Ramsgill in Upper Nidderdale.

“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.”