“All I want to do is say more with less,” Sarah Spackman explains. We are sitting in her studio in West Oxford, the light streaming through the windows, her sketch of a sprig of honesty she’d picked from her allotment well underway. “it’s such a beautiful pink,” she says standing back to admire it, her palette scattered with an extraordinary array of colours.
If her studio seems more cluttered than usual, that’s because Sarah is preparing for a new exhibition Continuum at The Sarah Wiseman Gallery in Summertown to celebrate 20 years of working together, with 30 new still lifes.
So how has Sarah’s work changed over that time? She pauses. “I think it’s got less cluttered and more simplified, just one object in a space. It’s always easy to see it in my head but I’m not very good at talking about it. It’s about giving that object some importance, to get the colour to vibrate,” she explains.
The Oxford-based artist who graduated from Camberwell School of Art in 1981, has worked full time as an artist since 1986, is an elected member of the Royal Society of British Artists and Royal Institute of Oil Painters, earning herself critical acclaim and numerous collectors along the way.
Her still lifes focus on revealing the enduring beauty of the everyday, elevating seemingly ordinary objects and transforming them into sites of quiet intensity.
“But “I like the quietness and bareness of still lifes so I spend a lot of time just looking at what I’m painting first. it has to say something to me,” Sarah says.
And where does she source her material? She chuckles: “I’m always on the look out. Those lily of the valley over there came from the flower shop in The Covered Market, the pears were from home, those flowers from the garden. You see things.
“If I find something I like in the garden or allotment, or just when I’m cycling to work, I bring it back to the studio. I’m in here all the time and just paint, so things evolve quite organically.
And does her vision come easily? “Well I always sketch first thing in the morning when I arrive in the studio, just to get my hand in. It takes a bit of time to set everything up because I often paint the wall, or a board, behind it to offset the object, but because as I’m working primarily with colour I like to find it on the canvas and watch its relationship develop. I want the colour to talk, so I’m really trying to push that.
“Which means every day is a different exploration – there is always something to be striving for. An artist is trying to say something about what they see, and their customers might have something else in mind. But I don’t think about who is going to buy my paintings when I work, that’s not why I paint.
And is it hard to let them go? “You get quite attached to some,” she concedes, “but I just hope that people can see what I’m trying to say, although they always look really different in the gallery.
“Lucikly Sarah (Wiseman) always hangs them really well and The Wiseman Gallery has always been very supportive, so I think this exhibition is actually quite unusual because it’s not often you have a relationship with a gallery going back 20 years. It’s a special relationship and it’s nice to be celebrating that. I’m just very lucky to be able to paint every day and make a living out of it.
With galleries exhibiting her work in London, Scotland and Cornwall, as well as mixed shows with the RYA and RBA, she’s still much in demand, so how does she prioritise her work?
“Sometimes you have to say no. You have to be realistic about what you can and can’t do. But Continuum has been a priority, even though I still get slightly scared about doing exhibitions even though I should be used to it by now.”
Finding the time to teach as well, Sarah must have been asked advice by new artists trying to make their mark? “When I started out and didn’t have the money to paint full time I would paint in the day time and then work in the evenings to support myself, in pubs and stuff. It’s hard but you have to keep going, so stick at it and believe in yourself. Other than that don’t fiddle. If you haven’t got anything else to say then don’t,” she smiles.
And with that Sarah Spackman is off, back to the waiting sprig of honesty, immersed once more in the colour, light and form of her meditative paintings, utterly captivated once more.
Continuum runs until  May 23. Details here: https://www.wisegal.com/exhibitions/126-continuum-20th-anniversary-exhibition/
