Artist Profile - Sally Stafford
Quickening
Medium: Mixed media on canvas
Measurements: 80 x 80 cm unframed
Year:
Price: £1,950 plus delivery
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Biography
Sally Stafford is a mixed media painter of semi abstract, highly textured paintings inspired by the natural world. Her paintings are an emotional response and are moments of personal connection expressed on canvas. She uses a wide variety of media and enjoys the interaction between acrylics, spray paints, gold leaf and oil pastel. Her research usually involves extended stays or residencies in the places she’s travelled to. These include the Somerset wetlands in the UK, Spain (where she lived until 2020), Portugal, Bali and Scotland.
For Sally, the process of painting is both visceral and meditative. She is not simply painting her natural subjects, but ‘growing’ them: propagating a living image with intuition and spontaneity.
Sally Stafford trained in fine art at Stroud School of Art and the University of the West of England in Bristol and she has been a professional artist since 2004. She has shown nationally and internationally at galleries and art fairs for 20 years. Her work is held in collections including The Wildlife Trusts and the University of Bristol in addition to private collections of individuals and organisations worldwide.
Artist Statement
What interests me is exploring places and the effects of time on these places. I think of the canvas as a living, growing thing. Layers of paint are poured, scratched into and over painted. Chance and accident are appreciated and included. Natural forms emerge and recede echoing the searching for a memory and the essence of a place and time.
I like to work in series with the seasons, recognising and celebrating the effects of time. A recurrent theme for me is Celtic mythology, particularly Summerland, the idea of a heaven to soothe the soul, and the eight stations of the Celtic year. My work is often more about a plant scape than a landscape accentuating the magic and symbolism of overlooked and forgotten spaces.