Sally Stafford The last of Summer

Sally trained in fine art at Stroud School of Art and has been a full time painter since 2004. Sally has exhibited extensively in galleries throughout the UK and has work held in both private and public collections both in the UK and Internationally

Sally uses a wide variety of media and enjoys the interaction between acrylics, spray paints, gold leaf and oil pastel.

Chance and accident are appreciated and included. Natural forms emerge and recede echoing the searching for a memory and the essence of a place and time.

Sally likes to work in series with the seasons, recognising and celebrating the effects of time. Her work is often more about a plant scape than a landscape accentuating the magic and symbolism of overlooked and forgotten spaces

Artist Statement 

My paintings explore the changing rhythms of the natural world, drawing inspiration from meadows, hedgerows, gardens and the overlooked edges where cultivated and wild landscapes meet. Working in mixed media, I build layers of colour, mark-making and gesture to evoke not a particular place, but an experience of being immersed in nature. These paintings celebrate the quieter corners of the allotment: the self-seeded flowers, the garden paths, raised beds and less-tended margins where wild plants are welcomed alongside those carefully grown. Rather than recording a landscape, they reflect the passing seasons and the subtle transformations of light, weather and time. Through painting I hope to encourage a slower way of looking, inviting viewers to notice the beauty, fragility and quiet magic of the living landscape.