Sarah Jane Szikora Art

“Another great source of inspiration is the wealth of embarrassing incidents that unites us all!”

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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. 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. Many things inspire me. Looking at great art is both a humbling experience and an invigorating one, and generally fires me up for a new piece. Among my favourite artists are the awesome Stanley Spencer, LS Lowry, Rene Magritte and I love the recent surrealist paintings of Michael Sowa. I prefer to work on stretched canvas or canvas board because I paint almost exclusively in oils. It is such a flexible medium and gives the richest colour, nothing else has tempted me away for long, I love oil pastel but it doesn't lend itself to the detail I like to put in. I have worked in ordinary pastel but I tend to reserve that for more sombre pieces. 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.

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