Sarah Pye’s expressive original paintings celebrate the beauty of the natural world, capturing the joy, colour, and freedom found in everyday landscapes. In this interview, Sarah shares the journey that led her from gardening to becoming a full-time artist, the creative processes behind her work, and the inspiration she finds in the landscapes, flowers, and moments that surround her every day.
Sarah Pye with Field of Joy
Q: When and why did you start painting?
SP: “I've painted since I was thirty and gradually it became a full-time job. I was a gardener, the inspiration from spending fifteen years outside can be seen within most of my work, all my work is of nature. It depicts the outdoors. I don't do buildings; I don't do straight lines very well if I'm honest. It's all about evoking a feeling of space, a feeling of air, and being at one with nature.”
A Splash of Spring
Q: Which work in your studio right now feels most personal to you, and why?
SP: "The piece of work that feels most close to my heart at this moment in time is probably one of my wild gardens. Created purely with a palette knife. I love the texture. I love the way it's broken up. I love the freedom that I felt while I was actually painting it. This is only using a palette knife. And the feeling you get with this garden is just this mess and naturalistic jungle of plants all bumping into each other”
Field of Joy
Q: What do you hope someone feels when they live with one of your works every day?
SP: “I hope when someone looks at my work, they will have a feeling of joy, of being uplifted. I hope the colours will bring light and a smile to their face. I'm not a deep and angsty sort of artist. I'm someone whose work is all about life. It's the simple things in life. It's walking in the woods with the dog every day. It's going to the sea on holiday down in Devon and Cornwall, which is where my coastal pieces are inspired from. It's really just about living and enjoying life. It's flowers in the garden. It's flowers on the roadside. It's things we see in our ordinary everyday life. And those are what really inspire me and are what I hope will make you smile."
Over the Hills and Far Away
Q: What materials, techniques, or innovations are most important to your work, and why?
SP: “I work in acrylics because I find them versatile. I can use them impasto, which is heavily textured, or I can dilute them and drop. I mix the acrylics in a consistency whereby they're not so wet that they run and they're not so thick that they go 'splodge'. A small dot forms on the canvas when it's dropped from a certain height and with a certain degree of force. Again, if you apply it too hard and with too much aggression, you end up with dots in all the wrong places and they won't be dots; they will form other shapes and the effect I really enjoy creating is one of pointillism. A lot of people think I've placed the dots individually. Unfortunately, that would take a very long time, and the dots vary in size, but that's part of it really. When you overlay one color on top of another, you get this wonderful mirage of dancing dots, much like traditional pointillism, but in a slightly more contemporary way. ”
The Golden Mile
Explore more of Sarah’s latest paintings and discover the collection in the gallery.
