West Penwith 

This project was undertaken in partnership with Porthminster Gallery, St Ives. A short residency in West Penwith in May 2021 was spent walking and foraging for earth pigments, developing an embodied understanding of this mineral-rich land. Deep reds, terracotta and magenta pigments have been extracted from the spoil heaps of the old Levant tin and copper mines, with pure black from the nearby Botallack mine. The Leswidden China Clay pits offered a rich source of kaolin, from which the creamy whites have been procured. Extending her travels to Gunwalloe, on the edge of the Lizard, Sara collected yellow ochre from the egg yolk-yellow rocks, extending the palette of colours which have been used to express and interpret this unique environment.

Each paint has not only its own individual colour, but also a unique texture, opacity, and character, each of which brings its own voice to the paintings.  Walking across tors, along coastal footpaths and moors, the presence of past inhabitants, all of whom have shaped this land, is felt. The standing stones which populate and characterise this landscape emerge and recede within the paintings, playfully recalling Barbara Hepworth’s Garden sculptures and the views through the garden and beyond. The glimpsed fragments of land, sea, and sky which we experience while walking along the coastal footpath are woven together into an enticing, intangible emotional response within these works.

These paintings have a pulse. They breathe. At times evocative of the flow of water, suggestions of distant horizons, meteorological or cave-like, the paintings echo the layers of sedimentary rock as repositories of previous generations of organic life and the future of life to come. The rock recurs as a motif and metaphor for permanence and impermanence simultaneously. 

Works from this project have been exhibited at:

‘Above and Below’, curated exhibition with The Tide & Time Bell, Artizan Gallery, Devon 2022

‘Where Rocks Become Sea’, 2-person exhibition @ Porthmninster Gallery, St Ives, 2023-24

Royal West of England Academy Open Exhibition 2024 & 2025

‘Materiality’, The Handbag Factory, London, curated by NoPlace Art, 2025