"My art work features plant and flower studies, architectural features, buildings and still lifes. Although I paint when I travel, most of my subjects are local, from Whitfield, which is situated in the West Allen Valley. I try to capture the changing seasons in the north Pennines, Northumberland by painting and drawing plants- spring bulbs, the first bright green leaves on an early perennial and the blue of an early summer on an eryngium.
When I paint interiors and still lifes I like the sharp light of a frosty morning on a shutter or the hazy summer evening sun with traces of yellow heat in the reflections. On my travels I have painted a wide range of subjects such as interiors of cathedrals in Italy, a Burmese teak monastry, an Italian street scene and Mediterranean plants from an Italian garden.
I paint in watercolour but also use oil, pencil, crayon and ink. I like to draw botanical subjects in pencil, particularly the hard lines of spring bulbs and some early summer perrenials. The later the season the more I turn to colour and by the time autumn is here I use watercolour for everything."
All text & images © Sarah Blackett-Ord 2011