sarahmed

I was born by the sea in the northeast of England, and having spent my formative years on the north Norfolk coast my perception is flooded with the mysteries and the magic that is water, it’s perpetually changing symphony of light, sounds and movement.   Following a career as a lady’s shoe designer, with boutiques in London, I changed profession and studied painting for five years. My early paintings were concerned with tall and deep spaces, like landscapes, particularly trees and water. In this subject several aspirations and necessities converged: to find a visual equivalent, out there in the world, for an inner emotive reality.   Being in charge of the choice of subject matter, the paintings explored an early longing, for what I could call ‘My Place’, without ever having been there or indeed even knowing it. It was, in spite of all the creative doubt, (Merleau-Ponty), the liberating certainty of paint on canvas that assisted me to articulate, visually, that otherwise elusive place, and know it for the first time, time and time again.   Somewhat of a ‘revelation’, this sketchbook project has taken me on a delightful journey that will inform my future paintings in the studio, and I am so very grateful for that.   Sarah Medway 10th January, 2011