Sarah Wimperis's interview with Singulart

Please introduce yourself to us!

My name is Sarah Wimperis and I have been a professional artist for 36 years. I am based in Cornwall in the far south west of the UK but I travel a lot for new subjects to paint.

Why do you make art?

I make art because now, after all these years I am quite horrible to live with, both for myself and for others if I don’t. I once went two weeks without painting, its not a clever idea! I think, for some people, it is their language, it is the way that they make sense of their world, that doesn’t mean that you need to paint your internal struggles, it might be that it is the way that you talk to yourself and sort things out. It is a release valve, some people go running, I make art. I make art on my time off from making art… it is simply what I do.

Sitting by the Azaleas, 2017, oil painting, 50×100 cm

And how did you find your voice as an artist?

I spent years playing around, trying on different styles, experimenting with different techniques and in that way I discovered what I like, what interests me. It is much easier as you get older to look back and see themes and patterns emerging.

You paint with watercolour and oil colour – which technique do you prefer and which challenges you the most – and why?

I love both, they have such different qualities. I paint in other mediums as well, I am very interested in the quality of paint and I like to make my own sometimes. The craft of the artist is very interesting.

What have been the highlights of your artistic career so far?

I was the only English artist to work on the film Loving Vincent, a team of 125 artists from all over the world worked to produce the world’s first hand painted full length feature film. It is about Vincent van Gogh, so I feel like a bit of a van Gogh expert now. I have just finished filming a piece for Cancer Research UK, which I am painting a van Gogh with one third missing. I have brought up five children on my efforts as an artist, I am very proud of that. I had a collector who cried over one of my paintings, that’s humbling when that happens.

Through to the Dining Room, 2015, oil painting, 120×80 cm

And do you have a vision of what your artistic future might look like?

I would like to encourage people to buy more original art, I would like to paint right up to the day I die, in fact I would like to die, paintbrush in hand at my easel, not quite yet but that’s where I want to be. As long as I can keep making my living from my art I will be happy.