Sarah Poland
Carmarthenshire
Painting - Drawing - Lithography - Printmaking - Botanical colour - Natural dye Installation - Photography. From Scotland, to Cornwall, now Wild Wales.
Links
- Website ,
- Instagram ,
- Youtube ,
- LinkedIn ,
- Sarah Poland ,
- Yr Oriel ,
- Ten - Cardiff
BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Poland, born 1974, Inverness, Scottish HIghlands.
Sarah began working as a full-time artist in 1998 after studying Fashion Design at Edinburgh College of Art. She moved to West Cornwall in 2000 and then rural West Wales in 2010. In 2015 she studied at Aberystwyth School of Art to learn under the tutelage of master lithographer Paul Croft T.M.P. and gained a distinction for MA in fine art.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and in 2018 Sarah won 1st prize at the Glynn Vivian Open. She has undertaken residencies in Shetland, South-West Ireland and in 2019 was artist in residence at G.S. Artists in Swansea. This was supported with an Arts Council Wales research and development grant.
Recent solo exhibitions include Belgrave Gallery, Cornwall (2018), Oriel Q, Wales (2019), Yr Oriel, Wales (2020).
In 2022 she was awarded a Create grant from Arts Council Wales and National Lottery for a solo exhibition at Elysium Gallery, Swansea UK in May 2023.
The exhibition, SILENCE - THE MESSENGER AND THE METAPHOR, will include painting, botanical colour, immersive installation, textile, work on paper, photography and clothing. There will also be fragments of text from Notebooks Of Eurydice by late painter Partou Zia, a text she has been ‘in conversation’ with throughout the project. This will be her largest exhibition to date and spans five years.
Artist Statement
The presence of landscape and being has always been a source to my work, in particular the ocean and the magical forest cathedral landscape. I have been particularly drawn to Northern and landscapes on the edge, always seeking to live within these spaces.
For five years I lived in my Nomadic Studio, immersed in an ancient oak woodland in West Wales. I wanted to make work literally ‘of the woodland’ and it was here where I explored making my own oak gall ink. This ink has antique histories and in seeking new botanical colours from the environment around me, I now also natural dye some canvases before painting. I seek to develop my creative practice more sustainably in how to source materials while considering the immense value of our wild places and the wider issues of plastic pollution and climate change.
During my time in the woodland I would go for full moon night walks and began making photographic works using a long exposure, which I call Moon Drawings. I combine the oak gall work with these photographic Moon Drawings to create collage and diptychs. With larger paintings and installations I hope to engage physically and spatially as well as conceptually, building relationships between the materials and the abstract, between nature and transformation. When making, I look for surprising relationships and unexpected collaborations between ideas.
Recent paintings are also about breathing, about what we yearn for, and the space created when being caught off guard by something which takes us away from our physical reality for a moment. They are also about beauty.
Using colour and it’s inherent instability, how it changes according to what it is next to, I look to create a shimmer, a vibration through using close tones and by using the support as light source as well as colour experience.
Studio documentary for 2023 solo exhibition 'Silence - The Messenger And The Metaphor'.
Text extracts / Reviews:
'Despite the poetry of her titling, these are not narrative paintings in any real sense until you understand the language of her painting, and it is your possible understanding of that language’s poetry that these paintings celebrate...she exists in her paintings to the same degree that she exists in her landscape, and it would seem that the landscape lives in her in equal measure. ’ ____Richard Blackborow, Belgrave Gallery St. Ives.
'Sarah Poland’s beautifully installed show at Elysium Gallery in Swansea is a peaceful, immersive environment where one can sense the synergistic relationship still possible between humans and the natural world. It represents years of work and exploration and is a beautiful testament to this artist’s desire to live in harmony with her environment.'________________ Elizabeth Hanson, artist, June 2023
'Treasure in Stillness is a dynamic, dramatic exploration of natural colour and movement, lines collide and dance making new tones where they cross, as with all relationships, where energies meet, something greater than the sum of its parts is created. Elements of tribal art are celebrated using paints and inks created from natures own pallet, Sarah makes them herself using oak gall, and iron rust and in this sense the whole process is part of the final works. The space lends itself perfectly with an abundance of light and has allowed Sarah to be unintimidated by size, some canvases are huge. Natural geometry vibrates throughout, tree rings, ripples in ponds, falling rain and snow and in this sense one feels enveloped in something fundamentally close to the Earth, something ancient, almost hieroglyphic at times. The moon is given a platform via a unique photographic technique and is exploited making erratic blurred lines from capturing the heavenly body, aesthetically akin to capturing a ghost in motion, the camera allows the moon to draw. Sarah won the Glynn Vivian Open in 2018 and it’s easy to see why with this bold, kinetic glorious collection.'
________________________________ Clare Ferguson-Walker for G.S. Artists, May 2019
'One of the strongest works exhibited by a Cornish gallery had to be the rugged scene in oil entitled 'Mountain Pass' by Sarah Poland. There is something of the wrestled drawing process of Bomberg or Kossoff in her landscape paintings which arrests the eye and brings you back time and again to the best of her pictures.' Henry Garfit, Artist and Founder of Newlyn School of Art - reviewing the London Art Fair and also on www.artcornwall.org
Born: Inverness 1974
Studied: BA(Hons) Edinburgh College of Art, 1997
MFA Aberystwyth School of Art, 2015 - awarded Dictinction
.
2023 Shortlisted for Eisteddfod Wales installation open call
2022-23 Arts Council Wales Create grant for a solo exhibition at Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2019 Galerie Simpson Artist Residency, Swansea with an R&D grant funded by Arts Council Wales + In Conversation event with Alex Duncan
2018 1st Prize WINNER Glynn Vivian Open 2018, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery + Museum
Solo exhibition catalogues archived at National Library Wales
2017 Artist Residency - This Is/Is This, Test-bed Project Space, Elysium Gallery
2012 Elected director of Aberystwyth Printmakers
2006 & 2007 Creative Skills Devlopment Fund printmaking grant
2007 Cill Rialaig Project, Artist Residency, Co. Kerry
2006 Wasps Studios, Artist Residency, Shetland
2003 Elected member of the Newlyn Society of Artists (NSA)
2004 Elected committee member of Newlyn Society of Artists
.
2010 Moved to Wales
2001 Moved to Cornwall
Nomadic Studio, Highland Scotland 2010
Solo Exhibitions:
2023 Silence - The Messenger and The Metaphor - Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales
2021 Evening Star Dreaming - Yr Oriel, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales
2020 Ash - Dancer In The Wind - Minitopian Art Gallery (an art gallery in a Regency doll’s house)
2019 Treasure In Stillness - residency at G.S. Artists, Swansea, R&D grant from Arts Council Wales
2018 Numinous Light, Dazzling Night, Oriel Q, Narberth, Wales +
'In Conversation' with Professor Tony Curtis May 2018
2016 The Intimacy Of Liminal Spaces, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall
2010 Flower Remedies - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
2008 Either Side Of The Night - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
2006 Tuath – Paintings - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
Public Collections:
Victoria & Albert Museum Prints Collections, London
Aberystwyth School of Art Collections, Wales
Hong Kong Arts Centre
University of Arizona Museum of Art
Publications:
2022 Collaboration In Practice : British Lithography 1800-2022
2020 an40 (Artists Newsletter 40th year feature) - Scene Report, West Wales
2016 Golwg, magazine
2012 Collaborations: Aberystwyth Paper Press Print
2008 Revolver: Art Cornwall, University College of Falmouth
2007 St. Ives 1975-2005: Art Colony in Transition, St Ives Publishing
2006 Art About St Ives, Henry Gilbert, 2nd edition
2004 Living On The Edge, Guardian Newspaper
2010 Cornwall Today
Selected Mixed Exhibitions:
2023
Collaboration In Practice : British Lithography 1800-2022, Bankside Gallery, London; Oriel Davies, Newtown; Aberystwyth School of Art Museum & Gallery
SGIP : Eco Visions - Clearing pathways to sustainable approaches to making art - Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Welsh Art Week, London Fitzrovia with Yr Oriel
2022
Contemporary Gallery Painters – Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall
RWA (Royal West of England Academy) 169th Annual Open Exhibition
Beep Painting Prize, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Walking In Two Worlds – Beep Painting Biennial – Volcano Theatre, Swansea
Salon de Refuse – Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Gallery Ten, Cardiff
2021
RWA (Royal West of England Academy) 168th Annual Open Exhibition
Oriel Myrddin Open - Carmarthen
Without Borders - Korin, Japan
Walking In Two Worlds - Oriel Carn Caernarfon and Oceans Apart, Salford
Welsh Art Week - Mall Galleries with Yr Oriel, Newport
Gallery Ten, Cardiff
2020
Welsh Art Week - Mall Galleries with Yr Oriel, Newport
Ways Of Protest - Elysium Gallery, Swansea + touring internationally
Gallery Ten, Cardiff
2019
The Closer We Are – Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2018
1st Prize Winner - Glynn Vivian Open 2018 Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum, Swansea
Winter/Gaeaf Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Winter Show Yr Oriel, Newport
Roger Cecil + Four Contemporary Artists, Oriel Myrddin with Gallery Ten
Summer/Haf Gallery Ten, Cardiff
2017
Gallery Ten - Cardiff Focus On Abstraction and Summer show
Belgrave St. Ives - Cornwall
Mid Wales Arts Centre - Aberystwyth Printmakers
Cardiff MADE
2016
Summer, Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Belgrave St. Ives Summer Exhibition
Atkinson Gallery, Somerset - MA and Post-graduate show
2015
Language and the Future, Xiaoxiang Portfolio, China
Oriel Q Summer Open
Belgrave St. Ives Summer Show
MFA Exhibition Aberystwyth School of Art, Wales
Royal Cambrian Academy Print Show, Wales
Student show, Changsha, China
2014
Belgrave St. Ives Christmas Exhibition
MOMA Wales – Printmakers Exhibition
'Birds Of A Feather', Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall
Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth
Gas Gallery, Aberystwyth – Print show
Courtyard, Hereford, with Aberystwyth Printmakers
2013
Hong Kong Graphic Arts Fiesta
IMPRESS'13 International Printmaking Festival, Stroud, Cheltenham and the Cotswolds
'Yuletide', Belgrave St. Ives, , Cornwall
CONTEMPORARY ART Summer Exhibition, Belgrave St. Ives, , Cornwall
2012
MOMA Wales Competition Exhibition - award 'highly commended'
National Eisteddfod - Y Lle Print / The Original Print Place
and touring exhibition: Oriel Canfas Cardiff, Ysbyty Glan Clwyd (Hostpital)
Bodelwydden, Oriel Glan y Menai Llanfair PG Anglesey
Aberystwyth Printmakers Summer Show, Maesmawr, Mid Wales Arts Centre
School of Art Gallery print exhibition, Wales
West Wales Arts Centre Summer Show
Belgrave St. Ives Summer Show, Cornwall
2011
Uncharted Landscapes, NSA, St. Ives Society of Artists, Cornwall
PRINT!, The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall
Summer Waves, Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall
2010
'Book Art' Ways With Words Literature Festival, Dartington Hall
West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard
Summer Exhibition – Whitespace, Totnes
Print - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
London Art Fair, Belgrave Gallery
2009
'A Cornish Perspective' NSA at the RWA, Bristol
London Art Fair, Belgrave Gallery
Exchange Gallery / Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall
NSA – 'Three Galleries', Cornwall
Whitespace Christmas Show, Totnes
'Off The Peg' – Printmaking Exhibition, Dartington
2008-2003
London Art Fair, Belgrave Gallery
Whitespace, Totnes
2nd X-posure - 'Revolver', ex-car showroom, Penzance
NSA 'Lineage', Penlee House Museum and Newlyn Art Gallery
St. Ives – Selected Artists, to coincide with the book launch ‘St. Ives 1975-2005 Art
Colony In Transition’, Belgrave Gallery
Whitespace, Totnes
'Spontaneous Combustion ii' St. Ives, Cornwall
'St. Ives Past and Present' Sherborne House, Dorset
NSA 'New Members', Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall
Whitespace, Totnes
London Art Fair, Edgarmodern
'29-92' (Four person show) Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
St. Ives 'The Next Wave', Hutson Gallery, London
'St. Ives Works', Atelier Gallery, Essex
'Porthmeor', Belgrave Gallery, Cornwall
'Christmas show' Edgarmodern, Bath
'ID' N.S.A. members exhibition, Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall
'View of St. Ives', Belgrave Gallery, Cornwall
Collyer-Bristow Gallery, Holborn, London
West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard
Become a member
We support our members with: insurance, networks, space, opportunities, R&D awards, profiling, advice and mentoring.
Become a member