Sara Dudman

Sara’s paintings and drawings are distillations of experiences from diverse residencies in rural locations. A deep curiosity about relationships and places underpins her creative practice and whilst derived from experience, her works do not rely for their worth on accurate depiction of specific people, objects or places.

Using the personal and interpretive possibilities of drawing and painting, yet derived from the immediacy and documentation of video, her works reinterpret perceptions of landscape, activity and the elements at play upon it. Traces of the layering process revealed within the works assert the primacy of paint itself as a contributor to the creation of each work.

Rocks have emerged as metaphors for defining and questioning assumptions about permanence, resistance and protection. At times painted over ‘found’ surfaces or airmail letters, Sara works with synergies between surface and subject. She deploys mark-making and gestures to reinterpret the swarming motion of flocks of airborne creatures, at times juxtaposed with representations of permanence.

Living and working in rural locations together with a respectful understanding of rural communities and industry, her works imply and infer wider and analogous traditions and relationships with land and environment.

Sara’s creative practice is fuelled by regular residential research trips throughout the British Isles and beyond. She has been selected for artist residencies in diverse locations including Italy, Cornwall, Shetland and Northumberland.

Sara studied Fine Art at Loughborough College of Art and Design and gained her Masters at De Montfort University. She exhibits extensively including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The National Open Art Prize and The Jerwood Drawing Prize as well as sitting on the judging panel for national art awards and exhibitions.

She lives and works in Somerset.

Website: www.saradudman.com