'My Peninsularity' Exhibition Catalogue

My Peninsularity A solo exhibition of paintings that explore the experience of living in a remote and ancient landscape.

By contemporary Welsh landscape artist

Sarah Jane Brown November 2016 to January 2017 | Off The Wall Gallery, Llandaff, Cardiff

The landscape reminds me of the important things in life.

This geographical isolation makes me a different person, allows me to observe, to view the world objectively.

You can walk out onto St David's Head, a remote protected landscape, and know that a thousand years ago it wasn't any different. I feel less caught up with insignificant stuff, it's much more about what's important, what's fundamental.

Sarah Jane Brown

My Peninsularity

Sarah Jane Brown's new solo exhibition launched in November 2016 in Off The Wall Gallery, Cardiff. Titled 'My Peninsularity', this new collection of paintings explores the experience of living in a remote and ancient landscape, drawing upon the themes of isolation and sense of place.

Living in the unique landscape of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, the sense of isolation, powerful and humbling, inspires Sarah Jane's richly expressive and explorative work. Following on from the success of her exhibition 'This Hallowed Coast' held in The Cloisters Gallery, St Davids Cathedral in September 2016, this new exhibition develops this perspective of isolation, presenting an insightful, compelling portfolio of landscape paintings.

Off The Wall Gallery, based in Llandaff, Cardiff, is situated in The Old Probate Registry, a beautifully refined Victorian building originally built in 1851. The gallery space is friendly and relaxed, supporting the gallery's aim to bring contemporary art to a wider audience.

A thin place 30cm x 60cm | Oil on Board

Clear and bright 30cm x 60cm | Oil on Board

Embracing what comes 51cm x 61cm | Oil on Board

Forecast 40cm x 50cm | Oil on Canvas

Have faith 60cm x 60cm | Oil on Canvas

Healing me 60cm x 60cm | Oil on Canvas

Homecoming 30cm x 30cm | Oil on Board

Humility 20cm x 20cm | Oil on Board

In the beginning 30cm x 40cm | Oil on Canvas

In spite of the rain 61cm x 91cm | Oil on Canvas

Just be 41cm x 33cm | Oil on Canvas

Let it go 50cm x 40cm | Oil on Canvas

Low and bright 30cm x 40cm | Oil on Canvas

Making space 60cm x 70cm | Oil on Canvas

Meditating 20cm x 20cm | Oil on Board

Messages 80cm x 80cm | Oil on Canvas

Off shore 60cm x 50cm | Oil on Canvas

Opening up 50cm x 60cm | Oil on Canvas

Other forces 50cm x 50cm | Oil on Canvas

Out on a limb 50cm x 50cm | Oil on Canvas

Porous heart 50cm x 50cm | Oil on Canvas

Reflecting on things 30cm x 30cm | Oil on Board

Renewed 30cm x 30cm | Oil on Board

Rested 30cm x 30cm | Oil on Board

Salt in my soul 30cm x 60cm | Oil on Board

Settled 20cm x 20cm | Oil on Board

Shorter days 30cm x 30cm | Oil on Board

Space to create 30cm x 30cm | Oil on Board

Stand still and listen 60cm x 70cm | Oil on Canvas

The best cure 33cm x 41cm | Oil on Canvas

True purpose 70cm x 60cm | Oil on Canvas

Warm shower 80cm x 80cm | Oil on Canvas

Sarah Jane Brown

Sarah Jane Brown lives in the heart of the spectacular Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in West Wales, where her environment, and mostly maritime career, has instilled a deep affinity with the sea. As a mature student, she specialised in ‘Fine Art Painting’, gaining a first class honours degree from the West Wales School of the Arts. Since graduating Sarah Jane Brown’s career as a full time professional artist has steadily gained momentum and recognition.

Sarah Jane has exhibited widely in the UK including several solo shows in Cardiff and numerous prestigious exhibitions in London, such as the ‘Cork Street Open’ in Mayfair and with the ‘Royal Society Marine of Artists’ at the Mall Galleries. She has exhibited as far afield as New York City USA, and her work is now attracting international collectors.

Sarah Jane Brown applies her knowledge of ‘old master’ techniques with contemporary working practise. Her expressive style combines a variety of methods; staining, glazing and blending in many layers, gradually building up thickness and texture. Paint is applied with brushes, knives, rags and sometimes fingers. It is painted, scraped, flicked, spattered and poured on, and sometimes off again, until the finished painting presents itself.

Conceptually her paintings are an outpouring of personal feeling and a strong sense of place. Whilst the works are not abstract, they are open to interpretation.

Many offer a duality, using the landscape metaphorically to describe thoughts and emotions.

Emotion is key to my painting, because, for me, that's what painting is all about. It's, if you like, a visual form of poetry.

It's my way of expressing myself, my emotions, my thoughts and feelings, and paint is just the medium I choose to do that with. The landscape is almost incidental in that it gives me a framework to hang my emotions on.

Sarah Jane Brown

www.sjbart.co.uk