Despite being born in England, British artist Sarah Carvell very much identifies as Welsh having lived in the North of the country from the age of four. Her parents, wanting to fully immerse her in the culture, sent her to a local school where the curriculum was taught in Welsh and so Sarah Carvell grew up speaking the native language fluently.
Sarah Carvell has been a professional landscape artist for nearly thirty years now, having taken up the brush again after having children and drawing on her studies from Loughborough College of Art, capturing the views both within and around her home. Her empty chair paintings with snug corners and charming interiors, speak to an enjoyment and love for the simple pleasures in life. The, often overlooked, beauty of ordinary home comforts are not lost on Sarah Cravell as is the case with the striking landscape immediately around her which she’s enjoyed her whole life and yet still understands and appreciates the allure of.
By generously applying oil paint with a palette knife in thick ribbons, blocks and layers, Sarah Carvell constructs and carves the scenes before her, almost as a sculptor. The rugged outcrops of the Hiraethog Hills, jutting rooftops of a terraced row in a rural Welsh town, or breakfast plate scraped clean and left neatly finished upon the tabletop are all enhanced through their creation in multiple coats of paint and Sarah Carvell’s ability to add and remove just as much as is necessary.
Contrary to many other Welsh artists, Sarah Carvell paints with a bright vibrant palette, often capturing the warmth of the sun across a landscape or building; even her evening and nighttime scenes draw the viewers’ eye to the glow from a lit window. The use of such a wide range of colours not only highlights Sarah Carvells never ending challenge to try and capture the subtle variations of tone within her environment under ever changing light and weather conditions, but specifically the comforting warmer hues, suggest a reflection of the feelings stirred up within Sarah Carvell herself at the landscape and world which encompasses her.
