The Grace of the World
By Sara Huxley
Original artwork
Collage and mixed media on canvas
Framed
Image size: H: 85cm x W: 85cm
This is a new giant floral mixed media piece by Sara for our Wild Things winter 2024 exhibition.
As a former textile expert, she's interested in the bold shapes and patterns of the flower heads and petals and the overlaying of colours, both contrasting and subtly graded. The result is a cacophany of colours, across the spectrum, bold yet harmonious and joyful.
Sara's popular paintings and collages are often large in scale and predominantly in mixed media. She experiments with building up layers and transfers of pattern and negative shapes.
"My collages are created by ripping and cutting painted newspaper, alongside paint and inks. I want the pieces to have a clean minimalist feel. I'm interested in stripping the subject back to its most basic elements, the negative spaces being as important as the positive."
ABOUT SARA HUXLEY
Sara Huxley is a contemporary painter, based in Warwickshire, who has a particular passion for collage. Cleverly, she weaves her textiles background into her paintings, creating a tapestry of colours, textures, and patterns, often akin to a fabulous fabric design.
Her works are a celebration of mixed media, utilising layers of acrylic paint, inks, and collage crafted from printed newspapers. The result is a rich visual experience that invites the viewer to explore the intricacies of each piece.
Sara finds her muse in the world of gastronomy, inspired by the conviviality of dinner parties, fine dining, social gatherings and the joy of shared meals. Her subject matter predominantly revolves around still life, offering a semi-abstract interpretation of moments in time, capturing the energy of a lively dinner party or the intimacy of a family meal, such as breakfast or informal lunch.
She works by building up layers, each contributing to the overall narrative of the piece, and her paintings are only completed when the artist feels the essence of the moment has been captured.
Using warm palettes, she celebrates the imperfect beauty found in organic shapes, deliberately painting pots and bowls with irregularities and peculiarities. Negative cut-outs mirror their positive counterpart shapes to produce clean and balanced compositions.
Sara graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic with a BA in Fashion and Textiles and gained a PGCE from Manchester Polytechnic in 1989. After a teaching career as head of department at a college in Birmingham, an examiner and, most recently, an Art teacher at the prestigious King Edward VI High School for Girls in Edgbaston, she became a full-time professional artist in 2021.
She has exhibited in the UK and Sweden and has shown at Art in Action, Oxford and Affordable Art Fairs in London, as well as galleries nationwide.