Photograph by Ric Bower
Mysteries Unfold Outside Of Time 2023
Wood-fired dye bath
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:
2024 Newlyn School of Art online interview
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
2010 Cornwall Today
2007 St. Ives 1975-2005 Art Colony In Transition – Peter Davies
2006 Art About St. Ives - Henry Gilbert, 2nd edition
2004 Guardian Supplement 'Living On The Edge'
Awards/residencies/positions:
2023 Shortlisted for Eisteddfod Wales installation open call
2022-23 Arts Council Wales Create grant for a solo exhibition at Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2019 G.S. Artists, Swansea, Artist Residency
2019 R&D grant funded by Arts Council Wales,
2018 1st Prize WINNER Glynn Vivian Open 2018, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery + Museum
Solo exhibition catalogues archived at National Library Wales
Visiting artist 2017, 2018, 2019 Coleg Sir Gar, Carmarthen School of Art
2017 Elysium GalleryThis Is/Is This Test-bed Project Space Residency
2010 Moved to Wales
2009-2015 Nomadic Studio; a converted luton box truck
2007 Cill Rialaig Project, Artist Residency, Co. Kerry
2006 Wasps Studios, Artist Residency, Shetland
2006 & 2007 Creative Skills Development Fund printmaking grant
2004-06 Elected committee member of Newlyn Society of Artists
2003 Elected member of the Newlyn Society of Artists (N.S.A)
2000 Moved to Cornwall
ABOUT
Sarah Poland (born 1974, Inverness, Scottish Highlands) is an artist and fashion designer whose practice spans painting, photography, botanical colour, installation and textiles.
After studying fashion design, Sarah turned towards art in 1998, moving to West Cornwall in 2000 and rural West Wales in 2010. In 2015, she completed an MA in Fine Art with Distinction at Aberystwyth School of Art, studying under master lithographer Paul Croft T.M.P.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2018, she won first prize at the Glynn Vivian Open. She has undertaken residencies in Shetland, South-West Ireland and at G.S. Artists in Swansea, supported by an Arts Council of Wales research and development grant. Solo exhibitions include Belgrave Gallery, Cornwall (2018), Oriel Q (2019), Yr Oriel (2020) and Elysium Gallery, Swansea (2023).
In 2022, Sarah received an Arts Council of Wales Create grant, supported by the National Lottery, for her solo exhibition SILENCE – THE MESSENGER AND THE METAPHOR at Elysium Gallery in 2023. Spanning five years of work, the exhibition brought together painting, botanical colour, immersive installation, works on paper, photography and clothing, including a conversation with the writing of the late painter Partou Zia.
Working with naturally dyed canvas led Sarah back to fashion, developing a plant-dyed clothing practice rooted in natural materials, limited editions and responsible production. Her clothing brings together her interest in botanical colour and her painting practice.
Following the launch of the Ande Bomber, a plant-dyed corduroy jacket, Sarah created FERAL COLOUR – The Artist Collection, which debuted at Pembrokeshire Fashion Festival in October 2026.
Explore her clothing at Meet the Designer and learn more about natural dyes.
ARTIST TEXT
The presence of landscape and being in it 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 Athe 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.
BIOGRAPHY
Studied: BA(Hons) Edinburgh College of Art, 1997
MFA Aberystwyth School of Art, 2015 - Distinction
Solo Exhibitions - click on the links to view catalogues
2026
Pembrokeshire Fashion Festival show + Design Market - debut collection FERAL COLOUR - The Artist Collection
Elysium Gallery, Swansea - Christmas Art Market
Walden Arts Christmas fair
Temporary Fashion - Old New Look store Penzance, curated by Daisy Laing + A.Todd
Yr Oriel, Newport, Pembrokeshire
2025
CRAFTING FASHION FUTURES - Conway Hall with Fashion Declares! + Selvedge Magazine
Collaboration dress with Safia Minney MBE
Commission from photographer Mark Le Bon for a plant-dyed, painted kilt for his appearance at the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party
Pembrokeshire Fashion Festival awards Top Designer + Most Sustainable
Ffwrn, Fishguard, Fashion Show
Brighton Fashion Collective fashion show + market
2024
VAS100, Visual Arts Scotland Centenary exhibition - Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh
Fashion On Earth show, Bristol Cathedral, with Sustainable Fashion Week
Newlyn School of Art tutor’s show + Art Fundraising Exhibition, Cornwall
Sustainable Fashion Week UK's Sustainable Christmas Gift Guide 2024
Make It British Christmas Gift Guide 2024
St. John's Hall, Bath - Christmas Fair
The Sustainable Studio, Cardiff - Christmas Fair
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, Research & Development grant from Arts Council Wales
2018 Numinous Light, Dazzling Night - Oriel Q, Narberth, Wales
2016 The Intimacy Of Liminal Spaces - Belgrave Gallery & Penwith Gallery, St. Ives
2010 Flower Remedies - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
2008 Either Side Of The Night - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
2006 Tuath – Paintings - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
Selected Mixed Exhibitions:
2024
RSA Royal Scottish Academy - VAS 100 Visual Arts Scotland centenary exhibition
Fashion On Earth, Bristol Cathedral with Sustainable Fashion Week UK.
Newlyn School of Art - tutors exhibition
Yr Oriel, Newport, Pembrokeshire
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
Without Borders - Oriel CARN, Caernarfon
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
Without Borders – Meta Forte, Venice + Art and Mind Center, Nagoya
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 + Elysium, Swansea
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
Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Yr Oriel, Newport
2018
Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Yr Oriel, Newport
Roger Cecil + Four Contemporary Artists, @Oriel Myrddin with Gallery Ten
2017
Winter/Gaeaf , Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Focus On Abstraction, Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall
Aberystwyth Printmakers - Mid Wales Arts Centre - Aberystwyth Printmakers
Summer/Haf Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Cardiff MADE open competition
2016
Penwith Gallery, St. Ives
RWA 164th Annual Open Exhibition
Breaking New Ground – BIG Exhibition, Aberystwyth School of Art Gallery and touring U.S. in 2017
Summer, Gallery Ten, Cardiff
Xiaoxiang Exhibition of International Printmaking, Hunan Fine Art Institure, Changsha
Atkinson Gallery Postgraduate Exhibition, Somerset, England
West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard, Wales
Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall
2015-2003
Language and the Future, Xiaoxiang Portfolio, China
Oriel Q Summer Open
MFA Exhibition Aberystwyth School of Art, Wales
Royal Cambrian Academy Print Show, Wales
Student show, Changsha, China
MOMA Wales – Printmakers Exhibition
Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall
Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth
Gas Gallery, Aberystwyth – Print show
Courtyard, Hereford, with Aberystwyth Printmakers
Hong Kong Graphic Arts Fiesta
IMPRESS'13 International Printmaking Festival, Stroud, Cheltenham and the Cotswolds
MOMA Wales Competition Exhibition - award 'highly commended'
National Eisteddfod - Y Lle Print / The Original Print Place + 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
Uncharted Landscapes, NSA, St. Ives Society of Artists, Cornwall
PRINT!, The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall
'Book Art' Ways With Words Literature Festival, Dartington Hall
West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard
Print - Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
'A Cornish Perspective' NSA at the RWA, Bristol
Exchange Gallery / Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall
NSA – 'Three Galleries', Cornwall
'Off The Peg' – Printmaking Exhibition, Dartington
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
'Spontaneous Combustion ii' St. Ives, Cornwall
'St. Ives Past and Present' Sherborne House, Dorset
NSA 'New Members', Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall
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