From the studio No. 37

We’ve come to the end of the year again and I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas on this shortest day, from deepest darkest drizzly West Wales.

It is the Winter Solstice - Embrace the dark and carry the light.

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It’s been a great year in the SARAH POLAND studio, not without it’s hurdles and losses. I’ve worked hard on building a natural dyed clothing brand and am looking forward to next year - I have a few exciting projects in the pipeline, including a natural dye collaboration and plan to get out and show at various events, including the Frome Independent Market.

I’d love to see you out there somewhere.

Building my website, brand and getting the Ande Bomber ready to launch have been some highlights.

The website has lots of new pages to view - Why I Natural Dye Clothing, Why I Make Clothes In The UK, Zero Waste and Meet The Designer. I also have Archive pages of paintings and prints from over the years.

Exhibition wise it was really exciting to get in to the Royal Scottish Academy AND sell my painting (below). The VAS 100 (Visual Arts Scotland) centenary exhibition did look fantastic in the hallowed halls of the RSA.

Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence.

Oak gall ink on traditional gesso on birch ply panel.

60 x 91cm.

There’s so much to do to start a business, it isn’t just make some stuff and sell it to a shop anymore! To sell online you need all sorts of things in place, a website, branding (plus a rebrand, thanks J.D. Sports!), a privacy policy, a returns policy, product pages, selling paypoint, good photography, GDPR…the list goes on…and on. Put on the spot, I can’t even remember half of it. Responsible, ethical sourcing is BIG.

As I mentioned before, the hurdle to rebrand away from SONNET by Sarah Poland, because of JD Sports’ interference, has taken up some time. I am glad to have fully embraced the change and am going with simply my name, SARAH POLAND. I now have a new logo, garment label and event sign. The website merge with my artist site will take some time, it’s tricky - trying not to over complicate it.

Any thoughts are most welcome.

Here is my new branding:

My time mentoring on the year long course at Newlyn School of Art this year was so fun, finding myself working beside old peers from my time in Cornwall was a joy and taking part in their tutors exhibition an honour.

Fashion On Earth, Bristol Cathedral with Sustainable Fashion Week UK was a blast and what a deadline to work towards! Thanks to Sustainable Studio in Cardiff and St. John’s Hall in Bath for giving me space.

Thanks too to Helen Manley-Jones at Yr Oriel in Newport, Pembrokeshire for always showing my work.

A new gallery who has taken on my Moon Drawing, photographic and oak gall work, is Tides Gallery in Swansea and their new showcase space, Tides Uplands.

Here are some glimpses from throughout the year.

Thank you for following my journey.

Wishing you a warm winter holiday filled with love and friendship.

Keep in touch, my best,

Sarah x

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London + an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

From the studio No.36

I was a tutor at Newlyn School of Art on the year long mentoring course this year, and they invited me to take part in their annual online fundraiser.

I have ten pieces in the online exhibition. Included are some of my oak gall ink and Moon Drawing diptychs and triptychs, a card maquette for an installation plus a couple of pieces from the (2008) archive.

Sizes and prices at Newlyn School of Art - Sarah Poland

Nightwatch-No.3, Nightwatch-No.2, Moon Drawing No. 11, Nightwatch-No.8

All oak gall ink on etching paper + silver gelatin print.

Card maquettes for Shape Shifter : Bird Love

Night Watch No.3, Night Watch No.2, Moon Drawing No.11. All oak gall ink on etching paper + silver gelatin print.

Moon Drawing No.20; oak gall ink on etching paper + silver gelatin print.

The Clearing No.8; gouache on watercolour paper.

A bit about the Moon Drawings

During my time living in an ancient oak woodland in West Wales (2010-2015), I started going for full moon night walks and began making drawings in the dark. Setting my camera on a long exposure, I used the moon as a light source with which to draw. I call these photographic works Moon Drawings and Night Watch.

Since then, I have put them together with oak gall ink (also from the woodland) drawings and make small and large scale diptychs and triptychs.

You can see more and read more about them here Moon Drawing

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You can also regularly find my work at Yr Oriel in Pembrokeshire, Wales and Campden Gallery in the Cotswolds.

From the studio No.29

It’s 4th of February as I write this and the new year has careered into place, there is always a settling in period I find and a hopeful promise of snow. This is just a short missive to let you know a bit about the current exhibition that I have a piece of work in.

Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence 2022

Oak gall ink and gesso on panel ; 122x122cm

The above painting has been accepted into the Visual Arts Scotland - Then and Now: 100 Years of VAS at the Royal Scottish Academy.

I am excited and grateful to have my painting included in this landmark exhibition. It's a substantial piece at 122 x 122cm and was selected from over 1500 entries. 242 artists will be showcased. Using my signature paint, made from locally foraged oak galls, I have made the painting with traditional gesso on sustainable poplar wood panel.

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A little background history - Who are VAS?

On a winter’s eve in Edinburgh, 1924, Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) held their first-ever meeting, becoming early pioneers of inclusivity within Scotland’s artistic landscape. One-hundred years later, the organisation has grown into a leading platform for national and international artists and now celebrates its centenary with a year packed full of opportunities for its members. To kick off 2024’s celebrations, VAS are holding their biggest-ever exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, showcasing work from the finest contemporary artists across Scotland and beyond. THEN AND NOW: 100 YEARS OF VISUAL ARTS SCOTLAND will showcase over 300 artworks, with art ranging from ceramics, paintings, mixed media, photography, sculpture, and a variety of contemporary art forms.

VAS has seen a lot of growth and change over the past 100 years. The organisation began as The Scottish Society of Women Artists in 1924 with the aim to empower women after their contribution to the war effort. In the early 90s, the organisation’s name changed to Scottish Artists and Artist Craftsmen to embrace the high-quality experimental crafts taking place.

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The painting has already been collected by courier and I head off to Edinburgh next week to join it and shmooze with the best. Hmm, now the next problem…what to wear.

STUDIO JOURNAL 9

From 1st May 2022 newsletter.

After much clearing space and decision making, the studio partition wall is down. The space has completely changed dynamics and I no longer ‘walk like an Egyptian’ to get in. Incase you don’t get it, I just quoted a song title - I’m now prompted me to look up the video on Youtube AND share it with you! The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian

Below are some photos showing progression of the studio interior wall dismantle.

Plaster board off

Posts and strengthening beam in, white paint next.

With this renewerd space I can start creating work for my solo exhibition at Elysium Gallery, a public gallery space in an old nightclub in Swansea, Wales, so lots of different and interesting spaces to fill. I’ve all sorts of ideas, including a 3-D painting installation, so now in the studio I can stretch out a little more. It’s very exciting.

However, I am in desperate need for a more permanent studio and painting store. Currently my work is stored in a static caravan, it isn’t ideal but it is somewhere seperate to the work space. I regularly empty two dehumidifiers and just recently I encountered a second leak. I’d say that storage is always an issue for artists, the work often takes up half of a studio space. So with this new leak I have lost a further 8 works on paper plus their frames. The previous flood brought damage to many large canvases.

Sharing a less glamorous side to being an artist, here is one of the damaged works, from my Ash Series.

Sooo, away from the Gloom…

I’ve been reading about quantum science and the quantum field for sometime through the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza, he also covers epigenetcs, neuro-science and meditation. It’s so interesting. When I start working on a series I don’t look at anyone else’s work but I read, including artists writings. I’m re-reading books In Praise Of Painting by Ian MacKeever RA, Resistance & Persistence Selected Writings by Sean Scully. I’m thinking I’ll look out my book of Bridget Riley’s writings, she writes with such insight on her own work and of other artists’. The new publication by Pace Gallery, Agnes Martin - The Distillation Of Colour, has arrived today. I am so looking forward to reading it. I’ve also been watching videos on Youtube of Brice Marden talking about his work. There’s such an incredible archive online. 

This week I’ve been making composition drawings and working out ideas for paintings for my solo exhibition in 2023. They're part of an Energy Field and Mapping series.

Mapping 1, botanical ink on etching paper, 23x24.5cm

Mapping 3, botanical ink on etching paper, 23x24.5cm