SARAH ARNETT
Sarah Arnett is a Brighton-based artist, illustrator and designer whose wonderfully eclectic practice moves between fine art, textiles and interiors. Her work is instantly recognisable: richly layered worlds of colour, pattern and ornament, populated by figures, wild foliage, animals and architectural fragments.
Originally trained as a weaver and dyer, Sarah has always been fascinated by materials and process. Her work brings together hand-drawn imagery, painting, illustration and her own photography, building and layering each element to create intricate compositions that hover somewhere between the real and imagined.
There is an extraordinary amount of making behind each finished piece. Feathers, flowers, figures and architectural details are individually drawn and combined with painted backgrounds, photographic fragments and pattern. More recently, Sarah has been taking these layered images back into textiles, creating intricately woven tapestries which she then works into again by hand, making each one unique.
Storytelling runs throughout Sarah's work. Film characters appear amongst exotic plants, mystical animals and remembered places, creating strange, theatrical scenes that feel part tableau, part dreamscape.
Vibrant, playful and wonderfully escapist, these are works that reward looking. From across a room they offer colour, pattern and atmosphere; get closer and tiny details and stories begin to reveal themselves. They are the kind of pieces you can live with for years and still keep discovering something new.
AVAILABLE ARTWORKS
STUDIO VISIT
On one of the hottest days of the summer, I popped into Sarah’s mews studio, tucked just back from the sea on the border of Brighton & Hove. With the doors open and a cool sea breeze drifting through, it was a rather lovely place to spend an afternoon talking art and making.
Sarah’s work is incredibly layered, and it was fascinating to see more of the many processes behind it: drawing, painting, photography, digital manipulation, textiles and print all weaving their way into the finished pieces.
I’d particularly gone to see two new, intricately woven tapestries, freshly returned from the weavers in the US. Sarah will now work back into each one by hand, adding further layers and embellishments before we unveil them at the Affordable Art Fair in October.
Next stop for Sarah is Sicily, where she and her husband will spend two months immersing themselves completely in their respective creative practices.
Two months making art in Sicily? Life goals.