ABOUT SALLY
Recognising the profound impact that art can have on expressing deeply held emotions and how visual language can build human connections remains a central part of Sally’s work as a painter. Working with abstracted techniques, Sally’s paintings begin with loosely held intentions, followed by layer upon layer of expressive mark making. Visual depth, through texture, layers and contrast are important. The ability to retain marks that are playful and expressive is central to her work.
Sally trained at the Lincolnshire College of Art and Design and at Nottingham Trent University in Theatre Design, where she worked as a set and costume designer for venues such as the Royal Exchange Theatre and Contact Theatre in Manchester and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Alongside her work as an artist, Sally gained two further master’s degrees in psychotherapy where for the past eighteen years she has worked in the field of mental health as an Art Psychotherapist with children and adolescents.
“I grew up in the Wolds of rural Lincolnshire where the fields, spinneys, and streams were my playground. On my trusty purple chopper bike, I explored, discovered and learnt about the beauty of the natural world around me. Hidden paths, spaceship dens, secret treehouses, climbing trees, bumps and scratches and above all freedom to explore was at the centre of my childhood. This love of landscapes and the natural world
is a deeply rooted part of who I am and where I go to find peace, solace and endless inspiration.”
“When I paint landscapes, I paint what I feel, distilling the essence into something evocative and emotional. The landscape becomes my inspiration for what is hard to put into words. The scars and traces of human experience, both beautiful and dark, are built into the many layers of my work through colour, texture and various mark making. Capturing emotional complexity visually in my paintings is deeply rewarding and an ongoing fascination
that drives my work forward.”
“I had my first art studio (converted bedroom!) at the age of fourteen where I would spend hours after school drawing and painting every day. Oil paints and soft pastels were my favourite mediums of choice and making art became my voice, my way of understanding who I was and how to express myself. Some of the tools I used back then I still use today to paint with.”
