Alchemy to Chemistry, Oils

Sarah Needham

Alchemy to
Chemistry

New Collection
oils and acrylics
from the studio 2020



Alchemy to
Chemistry

The starting point of this collection is the development of New Routes, Hand mixed oil on canvas, 120x120cm 2020 Special fair price £2400
synthetic pigments in the Industrial Revolution. I am for limited time only available for preorder, usual price £2800
interested in the relationship between ancient pigments and
those developed by chemical analysis . I find intriguing the
way in which this period has echoes with the present, how
technological developments impact our ways of seeing and
give rise to questions about history, veracity, and our
relationship with the earth on which we live.

Looking For a Way Out,
Hand mixed oil on canvas using French ultramarine carbon black and mars yellow, 120x200cm 2020 £7600

Synthetic Pigments: The development of this new series range of colour within them. This is associated with scientific
has been a process of getting to know and use synthetic ideas about colour purity and spectral light that were in
pigments and reaching a material understanding of their circulation, and with reliability and standardisation that was
relationship with their natural older counterparts. While part of the industrialisation process. This quest though gives
chemically similar they are significantly different both in rise to questions, questions about what purity is, about
their visual qualities, so that the synthetic pigments are truly beauty and about truth. And then more questions about
a single colour, while the traditional pigments have a wider whose truth and in turn how that relates to time.

In My Life,
Hand mixed acrylic on canvas with alizarin 60x60cm £1200

I Don’t Know How You Were Diverted
Hand mixed acrylic, with alizarin on canvas, 60x60cm £1200

Places I Remember
Hand mixed acrylic with alizarin, on canvas, 60x60cm £1200

Where Does It Come From?
Hand mixed acrylic with alizarin on wooden artists surface, 40x40cm £900

Between You and Me
Hand mixed acrylic with alizarin on wood 40x40cm £900

Looking through the Rust,
Hand mixed acrylic with mars orange, on wood, 40x40cm £900

Space
Hand mixed acrylic with mars orange on wood, 40x40cm £900

Idea of Purity I Idea of Purity II Idea of Purity III

Hand mixed oil on canvas with alizarin and mars red, 20x20cm £200 or £250 framed each

Alizarin Chemistry Formula

Hand mixed acrylic on canvas, 20x20cm £250 each framed in black wooden floater frames

Light Finding a New Way The Things You Said Before

Hand mixed acrylic on canvas with mars yellow 20x20cm £250 each framed in wood floater frame, things you said before has scrambled pure gold leaf on the frame

Magpie Shoes
Hand mixed oil on canvas with mars orange and synthetic indigo, 120x120cm £2800

Lady Bird
Hand mixed oil with alizarin and synthetic carbon black, 90x90cm £2000

Shock of the New
Hand mixed oil on canvas with mars yellow, tartrazine, French ultramarine and alizarin, 150x100cm £4700

Synthesis I
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 60x60 framed £1300

Synthesis II
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 60x60 framed £1300

Synthesis III
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 60x60 framed £1300

Synthesis IV
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 60x60 framed £1300

Synthesis V
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 60x60 framed £1300

The Things You Said Before,
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 150x100cm £4700

Natural Pigments: The natural pigments used in this indigo and madder and of variations in their mineral/
collection are genuine ultramarine from lapis lazuli, madder, chemical content in the others. Variations I find beautiful and
yellow ochre, golden ochre, bone black, vine black, oak gall human like. We know these colours, across the world they are
ink, and fair trade indigo. These are pigments that I have familiar to us in textiles, paintings and art works. Ochres and
been using for sometime. I love the way in which they carry carbon blacks have been used since prehistory, indigo,
our human histories of connection, leaving traces across madder and ultramarine since classical times. And I ask
routes of interaction and trade across geography and time. myself the question did the synthesis of these pigments
They are familiar, and to me familial. Each pigment contains represent a break with their past?
natural variations due to biological variations in the case of

Only
Hand mixed oil with yellow ochre, on canvas, 60x60cm £1200

Cavern
Hand mixed oil with yellow ochre on canvas, 60x60cm £1200

Cave
Hand mixed oil with yellow ochre on canvas, 60x60cm £1200

Trails
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 80x80 framed wooden floater frame £2000

Meander
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 80x80 framed wooden floater frame £2000

Looking for Connections
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 80x80 framed wooden floater frame £2000

Traveling Through
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 80x80 framed wooden floater frame £2000

The Edge of the Sea,
Hand mixed oil on canvas, 150x100cm £4700
(50% of the profit on the sale of this work will go to the British Red Cross)

Selected Juried Exhibitions The Affordable Art Fair, New York 2020

Beyond Other Horizons, Iasi Palace of Culture, Romania, a Gallery Representation
British Council/Romanian Cultural Institute/UNAGE
exhibition curated by Anna MacNay, Peter Harrap and Florin Highgate Contemporary Art Gallery, London
Ungureanu March 2020
Kahn Gallery, London
Makers And Craftsmen Project, Bergman and Mar, 2019-20
Silson Contemporary, Harrogate
The Black Swan Open, selected and curated by Johnny
Messum, Michael Eaves, Steve Burden, Debbie Hilllyard and Agency Representation
Sue Conrad 2018
Artiq , Cramer and Bell, Luminaire, Saatchiart and
Creekside Open, elected and curated by Jordan Baseman EPORTA
2017
Education
Art Fairs
Sarah Needham graduated in Fine Art and Education from
The Other Art fair Bristol 2018 Hatfield Polytechnic, she went on to study a Masters Degree
in Developments Studies from South Bank University, and
The Other Art Fair, London 2018, 2019 and 2020 traditional Chinese ink paintings techniques with Prof Ding,
Hand of Art of Jiangxi Normal University, China.
The Other Art Fair New York 2018 and 2019
Collections
The Affordable Art Fair, Battersea 2019
Work is held in private collections in the UK, USA, Japan,
The Affordable Art Fair, Hamburg 2019 Middle East, Switzerland and Australia

www.sarahneedhamartist.co.uk