Oceans, Lights and Beyond

“Shapes of cloud and shadows, wind, weather, colour and light sweep across our horizons and through our minds.” — Sarah Butterfield

As lockdown is easing we are emerging into the light – the theme of an important solo show by the British painter Sarah Butterfield at Mall Galleries in early November. For many people emerging from lockdown means more journeys - be it simply driving into work or going to a beautiful place. Sarah uses such journeys as an opportunity to paint light and our place in the world. Motorways, tube stations, driving to a takeaway, clouds seen from a plane or seen moving in the sky above, the sea observed from a ferry, artificial and natural lights mixing at dusk and dawn – nothing escapes her inquisitive mind.

Sarah writes,

“Some of our deepest encounters with the natural world are when we make a journey and are most exposed to the forces of nature.

As well as my classic landscapes and seascapes, I try to reveal beauty in unexpected places as we travel, however mundane the journey. There is beauty in traffic at dusk if you take the information out and stop looking at it as a driver. Car lights move towards and away from each other to create a pattern with no fixed point of reference. The view from a departing ferry shows the water’s surface and reflections from the harbour lights endlessly re-written in the wake of the ship.

These unusual combinations of artificial and natural light- the manmade and natural world interacting - help us see our place in the natural world even when we are walking across a car park.”

Sarah observes an unusual combination of artificial and natural light. With her scientific grasp of colour relationships, Sarah creates beautiful works of art. These paintings show her reaction to reaching the ocean and the continent’s edge. There is nowhere further to go. We have to build our dreams. Cars point to different worlds. Stars appear in the roadway. Clouds and city lights merge to become images of the cosmos.

Eighty paintings will be on show ranging from small studies to larger works. All are being exhibited for the first time.

“Sarah Butterfield remains one of the most persistently rewarding artists of her generation.” — Channel 4’s Jon Snow

Press

High resolution images are available on request.

Email: exhibition@sarahbutterfield.co.uk