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 and beyond.
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 the motion of flow in and around the sale ring. Her fluid, joyful charcoal drawings are an invitation to directly experience the 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 or running a workshop in The Gallery and studio spaces.
2025
Open Studio 25th October,13/14,20/21 December.
‘The Build Drawings’ an inaugural exhibition at The Gallery, DL13
Art on a Postcard, Bomb Factory, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London ‘Dialogues’
Clyde & Co Art Prize, with New Platform Development Art, London
The ‘BATH’ Open, Bishop Auckland
2024
The ‘BATH’ Open, Bishop Auckland
New Members Show at Hastings Art Forum
‘Eight Selected Artists’, Hastings Art Forum, Hastings
2023
Open Studio Middleton Auction Mart
SoCo Open III at Hastings Art Forum, November
‘Works on Paper’ Hastings Art Forum, with SoCo artists
‘Three pt II’ at Hastings Art Forum with SoCo artists
2022
RA Summer Exhibition
‘Relay Respond Relay’ , Electro Studios, St Leonards on Sea
SoCo group show Hastings Art Forum
2021
‘A Generous Space’ ASP Shows at Hastings Contemporary
‘Monochrome-Cadmium’ Rye Art Gallery
‘A Smaller Picture II ‘ SoCo artists group show, Hastings Art Forum
Associate artist, New Road Artists Open Studios
Open Studio, Coastal Currents Festival,Rye Harbour
‘The Marks we Make’ virtual exhibition at The Curators Salon
Rye Society of Artists Summer Exhibition, Rye
‘Clouds’ – Rye Art Gallery, Rye, East Sussex
‘Dreams’ Grayson Perry’s Art Club, Channel 4
2020
Open Studios, The Farm Studio, Rye Harbour
RA Summer/Winter Exhibition (shortlisted), London
‘Our Landscape’ The National Trust, Lamb House, Rye
‘The Natural World‘ Kench Hill Centre Trust, Tenterden
2017-2020 Rye Society of Artists Summer Exhibitions/Rye Creative Centre