Sarah Jarrett

I completed my degree and postgraduate studies at Harrow School of Art & Brighton University in 1992 specialising in Photography.

I was singled out in my final year for special bursary prizes from both Kodak and Agfa.

After graduating I taught Art, Textiles & Photography in Brighton and continued to exhibit my work in London, Brighton, Cambridge and Norfolk.

In 1998 I began to freelance full time and started experimenting with painting onto my own large colour photographic prints with oils and sewing onto the surface with a sewing machine in an attempt to develop a unique way of working with photography. It drew immediate attention from magazines and publishers and secured my first print and publishing deals. I now work with digital media using iphone and ipad sometimes recently in combination with Photoshop. The main focus in my images today is still in making photographic images look like paintings and in capturing dreamlike, ethereal beauty. To have a unique voice in my work is still very important to me. I try to portray a unique kind of beauty that easily makes you curious and crave for more.

For the last two years I have really focused on portraiture, I am constantly exploring identity and beauty and suggesting a story behind the image. My portraits often depict women with an underlying sadness and emptiness, wearing a mask that is fleeting and fades. I am very influenced by painting and contemporary illustration, fashion and the history of dress. I want my work to provoke an emotional response and for the viewer to be intrigued by the process behind it. I would like to think my art leaves an impression on the viewer that is not easily forgotten.

Landscape is my real passion and I have returned full circle to focus on it again at the centre of my work. My landscapes are often melancholy and timeless but strikingly beautiful, full of romance, tradition and poetry. I like to make pictures that are full of silence.

I have exhibited , licenced and produced commercial artwork for companies in Europe and the USA. I was selected as one of the winners in the Sotherby's International Young Artists 2001 for a series of experimental painted photographic designs.

The main outlets for my work have been in fine art cards, giftwrap, calenders, posters, limited and open edition prints, book covers and food packaging design for supermarkets.