Sarah Needham makes abstract paintings from hand-made paints using pigments and dyes researched for their role in global human visual culture. By painting with materials chosen for their historical and geographical specificity, Sarah offers a unique visual language voicing existential questions about how we live now and how this relates to our past. She pours these historical echoes and stories onto her canvas, abstracting place and art history on canvas and providing a space for viewers to venture and seek understanding.
Sarah Needham’s Early Career and Interests
Sarah Needham has trained in the UK and China. The artist studied International Development at a postgraduate level and is interested in how we make and have made connections across the globe and over time. Sarah believes that materials embody stories and are full of opportunities to discover and interpret new and cross-cultural ties.
Material Selection
Sarah carefully selects her materials, a methodology with roots in her love for art history, interest in human development, and curiosity surrounding the individual and the group. To guide her selection, Sarah investigates the use and significance of certain pigments in different places throughout history. This process also allows Sarah to explore transcultural influence, exchange and nature over time.
Exhibitions and Press
The artist has exhibited her oil paintings widely throughout the UK and beyond, including at The Other Art Fair, The Truman Brewery, London, The Decorative Arts and Antiques Fair, Battersea, London, and ‘Beyond Other Horizons: Contemporary Paintings Made in Britain and Romania’, Iasi Palace of Culture, Iasi, Romania. Sarah has artwork in private collections in the UK, Switzerland, France, Australia, the USA, the Middle East and Japan.
