Sarah Jane Richards (b.1977) is a Welsh artist working in drawing, painting and site-specific installation, based in Liverpool UK. Sarah Jane studied at Leeds Metropolitan University and Universitat de Belles Artes, Barcelona, BA hons Fine Art.
Sarah Janes work is concerned with capturing reflections and observations of the environment using mark-making through walking, meditating and drawing. From these are developed painting and drawing installations that relate to a place and time.
With an interested in different ways of looking and how drawing operates as a different mode of seeing. Sarah Jane spends prolonged time walking in nature gazing and glancing To gaze as an opening and softening of the mind and eyes, taking in the peripheral vision and being aware of light and form. Focusing on breathing and the experience of all senses whilst drawing. Glancing takes pleasure in capturing the fleeting, snapshots that form part of an unconscious absorption, informing the marks and textures created in their immediacy.
Walking offers a rhythm, an exertion, a way of moving through the world that gives a format and a meaning to marks and shapes. Engaged with the abstract and expressional Sarah Janes work also contains traditional observational skills from the process of moving through time and space.
Sarah Janes derives pigment and materials from the environment, creating alchemic mixtures of substances that negotiates the material's properties as part of her practice. Through these her work rests on the edge of landscape and representation.
Through site-specific installation Sarah Jane's work creates an environment to create an immersive experience, moving through large pieces that form an internal landscape. Current practices are exploring displaying artwork externally within the landscape that inspired them, moving beyond the walls of indoor sites, shaped by the natural elements, and occupying transient space.
Sarah Jane is a professional tutor for Fine Art at Hope University, Liverpool and runs regular art classes for children and adults in the region. With a person-centered approach, Sarah Jane is passionate about connecting with nature and people through creativity. She works with people to encourage their journey through art, to strengthen their relationship and knowledge of the natural environment and to support mental health and wellbeing. She has a deep affinity for nature and conservation, inspired by ways of beholding, valuing and celebrating the natural world. - for more information visit: www.fovea-arts.com
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Walk Draw Paint, Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 From the Land, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
Without Borders, touring exhibition - Elysium, Swansea - Wales, Associazone Metaporte, - Venice,
Art spot Korn - Kyoto Japan
2020 Unus Multorum, Plas Bodfa, Anglesea, Wales
The Drawing Show at The Bridewell, Liverpool
2019 The Drawing show, Arena Gallery, Liverpool
West Lancashire Open, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
2018 P-OD, Process- Observational Drawings, Arena Gallery, Liverpool
Nepomuk, Bohemian Festival, Waterloo, Liverpool
2017 The Nature of Things, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
2016 Sefton Voices, The Atkinson, Southport
2015 West Lancashire Open, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk Commended
2014 Paint Exhibition, Gallery 23, Lancaster
2013 Arena Unwrapped, Arena Gallery, Liverpool
2011 West Lancashire Open, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
Bankley Studios, Manchester
2010 In every dream home a heartache, Bridewell Gallery, Liverpool
Re-touched, Independent, Liverpool Biennial
2009 Open Art 2009, The Godfrey Pilkington Art Gallery, St Helens
Unique Perspectives, Selected Exhibition, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
Making it, Selected Exhibition, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
2008 Drawn Here, Independents Biennial, Liverpool
The Sefton Open, The Atkinson Gallery, Southport
West Lancashire Open, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
Wirral 4th Annual Open, The Williamson Gallery, Birkenhead
Up and Coming, Contemporary Urban Center, Liverpool
A painters Glance, Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne, Germany
Changing 8, The Cornerstone Gallery, Hope University, Liverpool
2007 West Lancashire Open, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
Transit, Nexus Art Gallery, Manchester
2006 Co-he-sion, Independents Biennial, Arena Gallery, Liverpool
Leeds Art Fair, The Light, Leeds
Relentless Forms, Urban Arts Lounge, Liverpool
2005 Prize Exhibition, Royal Birmingham Society of Arts, Birmingham
North Wales Open, Theater Clwyd, Mold
West Lancashire Open, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
2004 Y Tabernacle, Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth, Wales
GRANTS/RESIDENCIES
2020 Artkomas CreArt Residency, Kaunas, Lithuania - one month
Arts Councils England development grant
2016 Residency at Stiwdio Maelor, Corris, North Wales - two weeks
2015 Artist in Residence, The Atkinson, Southport - two years
2012 Comma Artist Residency, Butterfly Park, New Ferry - three months
2009 Making it – Artist Residency, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk - one month
2009 Artist in Residence, Ellesmere Port Specialist School of Performing Arts - one year
2008 Face to Face, School Residencies, Sefton Art Council, Liverpool - three months