Artist: Sarah Jane Szikora
Title: Startled Stag
Size: 16” x 13¼”
Edition Size: Artist Hand Signed and Numbered Limited Edition to 750
Medium: Photo Litho
About the Artist: HISTORY & BACKGROUND

Coming from a large family I was constantly looking for ways to amuse myself and soon discovered that drawing and painting were by far my favourite. I also made frequent trips abroad to my father’s native Hungary, encountering for the first time the larger than life ladies and gents who were probably the earliest influence for the characters in my paintings.

Although I found school to be an unpleasant experience I enjoyed art and music classes, so it was natural for me to pursue an artistic career. I completed a foundation course at Harrogate College of Art where I studied a range of subjects, including photography, sculpture and graphics. During this time I maintained a lifelong interest in simple drawing, and always enjoyed the life class most.

From Harrogate I went on to study illustration at Cleveland College of Art. The same interest in studying the human form continued and led to the development of the extreme figures in my work.

I left Cleveland, taking with me a HND with distinction and a handful of paintings, but I didn’t yet know how to turn my studies into a job, so the painting went on the backburner.

In 1991 I set up a business called ‘Wild Thing’ hand making papier-mâché models, ranging from twisted newspaper sheep to 7-foot giraffes. These were sold from a shop in York, and kept me busy for a couple of years until I decided to display the work I had left college with. The ‘big girls with attitude’ sold surprisingly quickly and encouraged me to concentrate on painting instead as my chosen career.

Since then I have been painting non-stop. Along the way my partner took responsibility for publishing my work as greetings cards until I found an agent who in turn introduced me to Washington Green and Halcyon Gallery in 1995.

I have since had my work published as limited edition prints, greetings cards and jigsaws as well as having various exhibitions over the last 4 years.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF

I wake up every day and consider myself very lucky not to have the kind of job that requires leaving home early and commuting to an office somewhere. A typical day starts when my partner has left the house and I potter around doing household jobs until starting work, at around 9 am. If I am on day one of a new painting I maybe visit the library or gallery and spend some time generating ideas. If I am lucky this can take a matter or minutes or, if the horrible spectre of artists block threatens to set in, I may need a whole day or two.

I absolutely love what I do and have no problem with my own company, my 3 cats provide enough companionship while I am working, although essential to healthy production is a steady stream of tea, biscuits and radio 4.

On a good day I will work through to 5 or 6pm, then do the usual leisure things, cooking, seeing friend’s etc. However what is more likely is a series of distractions including phone calls and visitors who consider me fair game for coffee and a chat. If I am at a difficult point in a painting, I can find myself weeding the garden or ‘organising my draws’ and generally getting stuck in work avoidance mode. You have to be reasonably self disciplined if working from home, so on these interrupted days I usually work late to make up the difference, this means I will finish working at 8 or 9pm (luckily I am not the type of artist who suddenly gets inspired at 3am in the morning). At this point I reward myself with a large G&T, then vegetate for the rest of the evening. Cheers!
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