Sara Thomas Art and Design - Open Studios

I am a mixed media artist influenced by the natural world around me, developing these ideas onto fabric. My paintings celebrate colour and texture.

My work is very much about the journey and magic watching ideas unfold as I work on them.

My interests and ideas come from conscious walking in my locality, finding small areas to study, usually footpaths, off-the-beaten-track routes and ancient monuments, finding connections and a deeper sense of place. From this, I forage for flora, collecting found objects, stones, shells, and pieces of china documenting my finds with photographs and sketches.

The process of design then begins, either using hand printing techniques, oil and cold wax medium and watercolours, always referring back to my notes and photographs. Intrigued by the symbolism of colour and connections, the combination of oil and cold wax medium is ideal to experiment with lending itself to textural mark-making which has a way of taking it’s own path, almost being led by some invisible force allowing the paint to move at it’s will.

For the more delicate option, I press the leaves and flowers using alternative photographic techniques, monoprints and relief print creating detailed prints. All these ideas are then processed and digitally printed onto fabric. I make unique bespoke lampshades and cushions and my paintings are no stranger to vibrancy creating works that transform others to this magical space.