Biography

TAKE ME TO A PLACE I CANNOT GO
Grainger Gallery November 16, 2023

Sarah Waghorn wants to take you on a journey away from the life you know to a place that maybe you dream of..

This visual travel essay was just a small seed, nurtured over the duration of lockdown when she was painting in her studio and craving other worlds and spaces. Like many of us during this time, we found that the only way to satisfy these cravings was to deep dive into the internet and satisfy our needs by globetrotting to some wonderful ‘other worldly’ places.

Having grown up in Europe she wanted to explore a ‘familiarity of place’. Whilst happy and living a fulfilled life here in Australia, she has found at times a visual landscape that is unfamiliar. Unlocking her past opens up a world that is sometimes entirely fabricated by her imagination or simply an actual place. It fuels an inspiring subject matter to sustain her creative DNA.

Following a European odyssey of some iconic locations - She wanted to capture the essence of a place rather than the well-trodden tourist trail.. although she does concede that Monet’s house and garden is well and truly on that path, but it had been on her ‘bucket list’ for such a long time - it was a highlight and an inspiration she could not ignore.


Bio

Sarah Waghorn is a British-born Australian oil painter who works predominantly in oils, but her pre-studio (often plein air) studies consist of gouache and graphite works. She is inspired by Australian native bushland and interiors - drawing upon time she spent in London working on magazine titles with the same House and Garden themes.

She has been a finalist in several prizes: Muswellbrook Art Prize, The Calleen Art Award, The Waverley Art Prize, National Capital Art Prize, Lethbridge Landscape Art Prize, Hawkesbury Art Prize. Last year she was awarded a residency at Tweed Regional Gallery to specifically work in the Margaret Olley Centre.