Sarah Burges – Artist

In the first of our features on Lewesians Unwrapped, one of us went to visit Sarah Burges at her at her Gallery – Lansdown Studios & Gallery – in Lansdown Place, Lewes.

Visit Lansdown Studios & Gallery

Sarah is co-founder of the Gallery which she set up seventeen years ago. As you walk down Lansdown Place from Lewes station you are immediately hit by the creativity of the place – The road has a violin maker with windows full of posters about concerts and choirs, a print shop, a vinyl record shop, vintage photography to name a few and about who I hope we will be featuring here. They all make you want to find out more, but what really stands out are the wonderful large landscapes in Sarah’s Gallery window.

The Gallery is also very much a working studio full of paints, paintings and cards, which mostly reflect Sarah’s love of the South Downs. She says “I get up 7 am each morning to swim in the sea and the changing landscapes really inspire me”.

Her working life started as a nurse and then she became interested in ceramic restoration at The Hop Gallery in Lewes. Whilst there she worked alongside a landscape artist and “that was it” she said “I became hooked on landscapes and three months later I bought a canvas and life as an artist began”.

Like many artists it took her a while to find her style and her early work was more abstract and used a different palette . Now she chooses dusky blues, muted pinks to vibrant greens and burnt orange, which gives a rustic feel. It is both moody and uplifting which she says “evokes the spirit of the Bloomsbury Group and Charleston Farmhouse close to where I live and where I take much of my inspiration”.

Her work has been shown at numerous regional exhibitions alongside the West Street Gallery in London and the Canvas Gallery in Winchester while she has sold to a growing number of collectors worldwide although that has become much more difficult since Brexit because of the large size of her paintings. She also exhibits in galleries in Petworth and Arundel and takes commissions.

From landscapes to hand tufted rugs

There followed a very interesting time as I was shown her large frame (shown above) and a range of amazing colourful rugs and given a lesson in rug making which looked extremely difficult but which Sarah of course found very easy. She has to work back to front, using a special gun to push the wool through the cloth to the other side creating amazing symmetrical designs. The result is a sumptuous rug with rich bold colours, although with her latest designs she has been experimenting with more neutral tones.

You can find out more about Sarah on her website or visit her Gallery in Lansdown Place or see her work on Instagram. You can also see an article about her work in Sussex Life.

Gallery – a selection of paintings and rugs are shown below but a large number of paintings and rugs can be found for sale on her online shop.