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• Sarah LONGLANDS

English FIGURATIVE artist, Sarah Longlands' artworks are refined, emphasizing her knowledge and meticulousness in the chosen medium, painting.

Trained at Bristol and Manchester, Sarah completed her post-graduate studies at the Slade School of Art, part of University College, London, graduating in 1981.

Sarah has been commissioned to do six oil paintings for the penthouses on board the new Cunard cruise liner, THE QUEEN MARY 2 (2004). The artwork for the ship is being organised by the Dutch art consultants, Onderneming & Kunst.

Her recent EXHIBITIONS include:

2002 - "Salon International d'Art - Argeles-sur-Mer", Chateau de Valmy, Languedoc Roussillon, FRANCE. - "Mouvances Internationales de l'Art", Ville D'Encamp, ANDORRA.

2001 - "Portail Francophone de l'Art". Cork Gallery, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, New York, USA. - "21st Portail de L'Art" May 2001. Abbaye de Brantome, Dordogne, FRANCE.

In the words of one of her collectors, J. SHAYLER, former leader, Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra (UK) and art collector:

The history of late twentieth century art and music has not been easy to understand for those living through it. No one has seemed to come up with an agreed style or form. Many works have had the character of pieces of research or experimentation rather than presenting a finished article that the observer can appreciate for its own sake.

As the new century begins, there are signs that the tide is turning. A number of artists and composers have turned to a form of expression which can be more easily understood by the public, and which reverts to the sort of values which have previously been taken for granted in every age of art and music. Such values include craftsmanship, composition, the use of colour and contrast and, above all the ability for the observer/listener to perceive what is intended by the artist, and to what extent that has been achieved.

The work of Sarah Longlands stands at the centre of this new perception in art. Her work is figurative and embraces all the qualities listed above. Her work is beautifully crafted and finished; it is carefully and artfully composed; it displays a rare understanding of and feel for colour, and it displays a real feel for the texture and substance of the object(s) being depicted.

But her art is not just representational. It also has a rare imaginative flair. The objects are changed into something which is beyond the original and which creates a kind of parallel ideal artistic reality. If this sounds a little like surrealism, then maybe that is not so far from the truth, but the work is subtler than that.

Perhaps it is the understatement of Sarah?s art that has got in the way of the recognition which it surely deserves. If so, it is only a matter of time before the Art World, at present so caught up in the concept of ?sensation?, will stop to look a little more carefully at work which quietly proclaims what art has always been about since its earliest days: the imaginative and creative interpretation of reality.

IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS:

My work is ostensibly realistic, but goes beyond this to explore the nature of reality, and of time and space.

I am very particular about the quality of the materials I use, using only the best quality paints and supports. Linen canvas, properly prepared will last far longer than cotton, being more flexible and suited to the vagaries of atmospheric variations and rag paper will not discolour and become brittle like paper made from wood?pulp.

I work both in oils on a textured linen canvas, or watercolour on a similar handmade rag paper. I like the effect of painting in a detailed manner on paper and canvas really more suited to looser, quicker work, and feel that the texture of the canvas or paper is important to the finished work. The watercolours are also painted in rich, dark, saturated colour, paying scant regard to traditional technique with regards this particular medium.

I worked for several years in a studio to the rear of a violin dealer and repairer?s premises, in the north?west of England. This gave me an abiding love for the violin as an object ? the curves and corners, the qualities of the different woods and the depth of the varnish. Other sources of inspiration are found in the natural world ? flowers, such as the endlessly fascinating iris, the sunflower whose leaves and petals always look as though they are being blown by an unseen wind, or the morning glory, whose brief life lasts only from sunrise to sunset. Whilst I find that the violin must be painted life?size, the flowers are often much enlarged, as though one were looking into the very heart of the bloom. or maybe seen as something else ? a glacier, a cliff edge, or even a vast spiral galaxy millions of light years away.