About

Sarah Nelson (b.1966, Sunderland) and her self build hempcrete home/studio/gallery, in an upland hay meadow, featured in the recent series of Channel 4’s ‘Grand Designs’.It is Sarah’s intention to establish this space as a creative rural hub: providing an exhibition space for contemporary art and a programme of art workshops making art easily accessible to the local community.

Sarah is influenced by her previous work as a theatrical set designer, this continues to inform the dynamism and sense of performance in her work. Drawing directly from life, her current practice records the shifting shapes of interaction at livestock auction marts. Sarah’s energetic and expressive mark-making capture a carousel of motion flowing in and around the sale ring. Her fluid, joyful charcoal drawings are an invitation to directly experience the boisterously noisy environment of an auction sale day. Sarah’s lively drawings stand as works in their own right, while also serving as vibrant inspiration for her studio-based painting and printmaking.

Sarah Nelson studied BA Hons Theatre Design at The Central, St Martin’s School of Art & Design, London. She worked as a Set Designer and Art Director for theatre and television: was expat, in Oman and Qatar, for a decade with her young family, painting mountains and camels. In 2015, she returned to the UK, to Rye, becoming a full-time artist, painting and printmaking at The Rye Creative Centre. Sarah exhibited widely in the South of England, was a member of SoCo (South East Coast Artists) and HAF (Hastings Art Forum).Her work has been shown at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London 2022,2025, ‘A Generous Space’ with Artists Support Pledge at Hastings Contemporary 2022, was recently selected for the charity auction ‘Art on a Postcard’ and is currently exhibiting in The Clyde & Co art prize, with New Platform Development Art in London.

Sarah welcomes enquiries from artists(particularly from the North East) who are interested in exhibiting/running a workshop in this space.