I’m slowly working my way up to a 120 x 100 cm monochrome painting. Using this limited palette is a challenge. I worry that, if I throw myself directly into a (for me) massive painting, it will fail. Upping the scale by a dramatic amount is a difficult thing to do. I will need bigger brushes, bigger jars for my paint, and use my whole body when I make a mark, not just my wrist. I started on A3 watercolour board. I have progressed to 60 x 60 canvas. So far, so good.
I discover that I’ve not posted anything here since May 2020. Since then I have mainly used Instagram to share my work. I’d be interested to know how you feel about social media, and the best way to share and promote work? Links to my social media accounts are below.
Just over a year ago, perhaps as a reaction to the strangeness of our current situation, my work changed. In a moment of fearlessness, a large comical nose appeared, and then an eye. My abstract paintings were now also absurd grotesques. They made me laugh.
I have been working with a more monochromatic palette because I have been asked to do something quite large in ‘black and white with one dark colour‘. I’m normally partial to pinks, turquoise, and bright yellows (see painting at the bottom of this post). It’s proving a very productive exercise. It is always good to limit the possibilities, that’s when you have to make concise decisions. I do wonder if/how my work will be affected by this period of monochromatic discipline when I let the colour back in.
The painting below, was created in September of 2021. I have entered it into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition because, why not. I won’t know until April if I’m through to the next round. It’s hard to get in, so we will see. I’ll let you know.
If you’re out there, reading this, please let me know. Thank you, Sarah.
Hi,
I have decided to stop paying for this blog, as I already have a website with a blog facility:
Unfortunately that means you are likely to get some adverts with this post which might be a little off-putting to say the least, sorry!
I will not take this site down, and I may use it occasionally in the future. It will serve as an archive of work leading up to this point.
Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
Thank you for following me, and I hope you will continue to watch my progress through my website.
Sarah
I am honoured to have been chosen as one of the judges for this year’s Green Hill Arts Open Exhibition.
To submit your work, click on the above link.
Based in Moretonhampstead and one of Devon’s most prominent Art Galleries, Green Hill is attracting the attention of some of the most respected South West Artists. Names such as Peter Randall-Page, Susan Derges, and Peter Stiles have become synonymous with Green Hill over the last five years having exhibited in the Gallery’s large attractive contemporary space, and supported Green Hill’s developing programme.
On the 10th of June 2017, a commissioned painting of mine was used for stage visuals at Wembley Stadium. It was disassembled, and animated behind the singer Rag ‘N’ Bone Man. This was made possible by Stefan Goodchild and his company Triple Geek (he has previously worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel, LCD Soundsystem, Queen, Pet Shop Boys, and Florence and the Machine ). I am honoured to have had his magic applied to my painting. Here are some screen shots taken from YouTube:
Watch it on YouTube here: Rag ‘N’ Bone Man – ‘Human’ (Live At Capital’s Summertime Ball 2017)
I have just been re-reading this blog. I went right back to a post from the 12th January 2010. This was only 2 weeks after I had arrived in Cyprus for what was meant to be a 6 month residency at the Cyprus College of Art. Here I found this little statement that made me laugh quite hard:
“I did a small abstract painting in my notebook this afternoon, and if I’m honest, I enjoyed making this the most. It would be quite funny if I end up doing abstract work here. I doubt I will though.”
Frankly, it is a little embarrassing.
Below is a drawing I did very soon afterwards that I feel marked the beginning of new way of thinking for me. At 19, I remember my college tutor telling me that one day “the penny would drop”. That year in Cyprus, almost 2 decades later, I think it finally did.
Gouache on A2 paper (23rd Feb 2010)
I recently spent 2 weeks on the Greek island of Crete. I discovered how much I have missed being in a warm Greek speaking country, and I would have liked to have stayed much longer. Returning to this country has been a shock, but I am trying to hold on to the experience for as long as possible. Cyprus is calling me back more loudly now.
Here are some images that came home with me.
Even the coffee paints shapes
This blue…
Found object fence
Mantis shadow
Small low moon
More blue
As part of our current Square gallery exhibition titled ‘Finding Form’ that is showcasing the work of Sarah Hoskins and Stephen Park we asked Sarah a few questions about her practice and arts career so far. You can read her answers below:
1) You graduated from Wimbledon School of Art and then completed a Post-Graduate at the Cyprus College of Art – what are the main ways that your arts education influenced your practice?
I spent 9 months in Cyprus doing my Post-Graduate Diploma. The late Stass Paraskos was the Principle; he belonged to an earlier era. He was unselfconscious and had retained his naive enthusiasm. Technically not a tutor, but there everyday and working alongside us he rekindled an attitude in me towards ‘making’ as a primary thing which I had lost at Wimbledon. I had gained a lot from being there but I had also acquired an unhelpful internal voice and this was shut down in Cyprus. That was a turning point.
2) Since graduating you have exhibited in the UK and internationally – please can you tell us about any shows you’ve been a part of that really stand out for you and why?
In 2010 I returned to the Cyprus College of Art as a resident artist. I stayed on to become the head of their Foundation course, so I was there for three years in total. My current working methods and obsessions were born during this time. My first public exhibition of this work was in the college gallery not long before I returned to England, and was very well received. There was something very complete and satisfying about this whole episode from inception to exhibiting.
3) Have you always worked in colour?
Yes, I find it hard not to use colour. Colours transform each other and surprise me. I always enjoy this and it is inexhaustible.
4) What is it about shape and form that interests you?
I think ‘interest’ is the wrong word. It’s more of a compulsion. An involvement that is a bit like solving puzzles, but it is driven by a desire to make something that is new and whole that wasn’t there before. I think of my pictures as things that grow, like a tree or an aubergine.
5) Who/ what are your main influences when making new work?
In the past I worked through the influences of different artists. Many were obvious like Picasso and Matisse, others less so. The most recent was Jessica Stockholder, but these days I am more influenced by my garden, which is actually a cluster of potted plants outside my house.
6) Why do you choose gouache as a medium?
Gouache suits my work because it is clean, flat, matt and you can overlay it without losing opacity.
7) In the current Square exhibition ‘Finding Form’ your work is presented alongside Stephen Park’s – how do you feel this pairing invites new readings of your work? Is this the first time you have exhibited in the same show?
We have an understanding of what the other is doing and I think our work is complementary. Exhibiting together feels like a natural thing to do.
8) Do you have any upcoming exhibitions/ how do you envisage your practice developing in the future?
My pictures are very time consuming to make, so I don’t expect to exhibit until early next year, except for opening my studio in September. I am beginning to explore the possibility of working on a larger scale and perhaps working in oil paint.
**All works in the exhibition are for sale and can be viewed from 10am – 6pm daily. With sales enquiries please email: nicol.phillips@thesqaureclub.com.**
Here is a short film about the Principle of the Cyprus College of Art, Stass Paraskos. His son Michael has put together some interviews and home videos of Stass. It is a revealing collection of memories, at times very personal and touching. Stass tells his own story; how he came from humble beginnings as a shepherd in Cyprus and moved to England with only £5 in his pocket. Becoming an art student and then an art lecturer, he went on to mix with many influential people including Terry Frost and Herbert Read. He also tells you a little about when he was taken to court for obscenity. I could go on, but he tells it much better than I can. Watch this film, and learn more about an amazing man that inspired many people, myself included.
Me and Dad on Bournemouth Pier in 1992
My Dad was an exceptional man, speaking of him in the past tense feels very strange.
My parents’ marriage broke down when I was 5, before my father became a ‘film star’. Our lives moved far apart; I was living a relatively normal life in Devon and he was attending premiers around the world and making films in exotic locations. Visiting him, I often felt like ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’, an ordinary girl briefly entering his extraordinary world. Even so, I always knew that my father was proud of me; he came to my exhibitions, and filled his home with my paintings
Being the daughter of someone as famous as my Dad can often be surreal and bizarre. To walk down the street and see your Dad’s face plastered across the side of a bus is a weird experience I can tell you! Plus, nobody wants to see their dad having sex or being killed, but I often had to experience it in his films, sometimes at the same time! There is a scene in ‘The Secret Agent‘ that makes me very uncomfortable indeed.
My experience has been that death has the power to dispel all that comes between us. I tried to see Dad as often as I could at the end. In the last days that I spent with him, I held his hand, said I loved him, and told him he was the best. I know this made us both happy. These moments I treasure, and I wish I had more of them.
I am immensely proud of everything that my Dad achieved. He was an incredible force, powering his way through life, wielding his charisma and charm. When I use certain phrases like ‘it’s all going wonderfully well’, or I catch my face in an expression that reminds me that I am my father’s daughter, I feel he is with me.
I awoke the morning after he died, and realised that this is the first day of the rest of our lives without him in it. It is hard to accept that we won’t see him, give him a hug, or make him smile again.
This morning I heard Dad’s voice in a C.S. Lewis quote. I sent it to my brothers, Alex and Jack, and my sister Rosa, so that they might hear it too.
“Courage, dear heart”
Sarah Hoskins' Journal 