Contact : sarah.jane.bellwood@gmail.com
Sarah Jane Bellwood visualises and processes the world in terms of paint and pigment. She thinks in layers of paint, accompanied by an internal monologue that rationalises, argues, and spots patterns. The concepts underpinning her paintings shift with the changing landscape of human attitude.
Her most recent work examines the psychology of humans on the margins of society, using the examination of plants and insects that are forced to exist around the edges of towns and cities. The artist is fascinated by extremes of human behaviour, using plants, weeds, and insects—things humans consider repulsive—as metaphors for these extremes of human existence. She explores the unpleasant and dark side of humanity that resides within us all, just waiting for an opportunity or excuse to emerge.
Sarah is also intrigued by science and physics and their obvious effects on plants and insects. The movement of the sun and the moon, the effects of rain, the constant changing of the seasons, and the patterns that exist within nature are central to their work.
She is constantly reminded that humans are just domesticated apes and mammals, and that our behaviour reflects all life on Earth: a desire for resources, the hierarchy that social currency enables, and the ultimate aim to feed, overconsume, and reproduce more offspring to carry on our genetics.
The artists work reflects the romantic visual experience of the English countryside and the darkest, most destructive motivations of the humans who inhabit its beauty—humans who would destroy both it and each other in a heartbeat to satisfy greed.
Galleries
Panter & Hall, London
Castlegate House Gallery, Lake District
2020
Solo show, Panter & Hall, London
2019
Solo show, Penrith & Eden Museum, Lake District
2018
Affordable Art Fair, London (with Panter & Hall)
Thanks to US Customs, mixed show, Panter & Hall, London
Cecil Court Christmas Show, Panter & Hall, London
2017
LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair, London (with Panter & Hall)
Affordable Art Fair, New York & London (with Panter &Hall)
Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (North of England Prize)
Work acquired by Penrith & Eden Museum
2016
Group Show, Panter &Hall, London
Small Things, Bellwood & Wright, Lancaster
Shortlisted North, Bellwood & Wright, Lancaster
Inheritance (solo exhibition), Panter & Hall, London
Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize at the Mall Gallery, London
Affordable Art Fair, New York (with Panter & Hall)
2015
Affordable Art Fair, London (with Panter & Hall)
Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize at the Mall Gallery, London
Sunday Times Watercolour Competition at the Mall Gallery, London
New Light Prize Exhibition at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate and Panter & Hall, London
2014
National Open Art Competition (Towry Award, best work from North of England) at Somerset House, London and the Pallant
House Gallery, Chichester
Group Show, Panter & Hall, London
Education
Fine Art Foundation, Carlisle Art College (now University of Cumbria)
1985 Diploma in Community Arts, Manchester Polytechnic, 1987
Fine Art Degree, St Martins College, Lancaster University 2001-2004