I hope to make paintings that reflect some of the irony, dilemmas and contradictions in contemporary life. I like to think of my paintings as a commentary on what it is like and how it feels to live or even just to exist in our times. 

My recent oil paintings, re-interpret the stereotypical portrait. They are about emotions, relationships and the way we interact, both with each other and with images.

I use captured moments rather than the traditional poses associated with portraiture so working with photography becomes a part of the process. The photographic sources are just there as starting points for the paintings, I don’t stick to them religiously.  I use the paint to draw directly on the canvas then build up layers from washes to more gestural mark making, often combining brushwork with palette knife. It is an intuitive approach, I invent colour palettes and marks that are emotive to the subject, I let the painting evolve. The resulting paintings can be construed as part conversations, part musings, into which the viewer is drawn, willingly or not, into the world of the subject, both in a voyeuristic and complicit way. The use of filmic references coupled with expressive mark making comment on contemporary life; I am interested in the cross-over between the fictional and the real in a society where the two have become ever-more confused.

Sal has a BA Hons in Fine Art and a PGCE in Art & Design, she lives and works in Hackney, London.
Sal has exhibited widely in London and the UK, and has had two solo shows in the last two years in Herts and London.

In 2014 she was selected for the Discerning eye, annual open exhibition at the Mall galleries, and in 2015 selected for the Society of Women artists annual open exhibition. She was elected an associate member of the national Society of Painters, Sculptors and Print makers in 2016 and exhibited in their annual shows 2016 and 2017. She is a selected member of Artcan and sits on the advisory board, of British Women Artists and the Scottish Society of Artists.
In 2016 she was long-listed for the Jackson’s Open Art prize, winning the interim oil painting prize. Works are held in private collections in the UK and Internationally.

Working primarily with oil paint on canvas Sal’s fascination with painting focuses on our relationship with representation; particularly with regard to human expression and communication. Her emotionally charged paintings, portraying, primarily, fictional subjects, are an attempt to capture the action of expression out of context whilst transforming the stereotypical portrait. Using subjects that she has sourced from cinema, the media and her own photography she creates works that explore human reaction and empathy on a personal level. Her work investigates our love of the dramatic, focusing on scenes of questioning, love, betrayal, and power-play; along with titles originating from dialogue, they invite the viewer to share and empathise with this inner world of familiar strangers.
The painted surface draws attention to the process of painting and to the artist’s choices in transforming the photographic source image.