Page 15 - SARAH ELDER ART_Neat

Born in Cyprus and brought up in Fiji and then the English countryside Sarah has always drawn inspiration from the animals,
landscapes, people and everyday life she has encountered, both in her extensive travels abroad and in the UK. Her career as a

professional artist began in 1995 when she swapped the global stock markets of the City’s virtual world for the primitive heat and

dust of Africa and Asia. She has a remarkable talent for observation and a singular ability to render the colour, movement and

atmosphere of the scene before her.

Now firmly established as a very successful travel and wildlife artist with several awards to her name (including BBC Wildlife Artist

of the Year). On winning the award the judges said “Sarah has cleverly captured the fluid movement of the cheetah in an organic
and unique style. It sings Africa ”. Once again the eight pictures she entered the following two years for the award were all

finalists (an artist can only win once though), which is testament to her achievement. Sarah’s work is held in many public and

private collections throughout the world. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions for over 30 years, has illustrated
several books on Africa and her paintings have been featured on various television programmes.

Movement forms a special concern in her work, whether depicting hares in the English countryside, zebras, cheetahs or gazelles in
the plains of Africa; or the slow rhythmic pattern of shepherds and their flocks in the Himalayan pastures. Her reputation rests

on her ability to translate the evocative sights and sounds through her brush onto the appropriate surface which she feels most

akin to the subject. Sarah is fearless in her use of unconventional mediums such as the extensive collection of handmade papers,

which she collects from all over the world, Elephanthide paper, African earths, charcoal and sand, sourced directly from the
environment in which she is working. Technically this is often implied by a series of gentle brush strokes coupled with layers of

glaze which allow a shimmering translucence to pervade the paintings. This ethereal quality, at times contrasting with the under-

lying reality of such rural subjects, is characteristic of Sarah’s method; yet it is this painterly subtlety and deftness of touch that
lends each picture its unique and sympathetic ambiance and allows us to glimpse, through her eyes, the mysteries of these remote

worlds.

“I love to travel to different countries, soaking up and embracing the atmosphere, colour and culture of these distant lands”….