Sarah Poland is exhibiting at Oriel Q from May 5th to June 16th 2018 at Oriel Q. Come join us here at Oriel Q on May 19th for a discussion between Tony Curtis and Sarah Poland on her new exhibition ''Numinous Light, Dazzling Night''

Her exhibition is a series of painting, lithography, drawing and photography that she made over seven years, three of which was when she was living off grid in an eighty acre Welsh oak woodland. Observations of her surroundings and interactions with nature informed her work which reflects the very essence of communicating with our surroundings. Sarah says;

"I’m not sure whether the trees were dancing, making music or practising calligraphy but these observations help to inform my practice.
This selection of work is from an ongoing project started about seven years ago. It emerged after an experience of living off-grid for three years in an eighty-acre oak woodland in west Wales. During this time I made many drawings and paintings, I collected oak galls from the woodland floor, rust from the forge and water from the river to make oak-gall ink (nick-named Ink of Poets and Kings) - I wanted to make something truly of the woodland. I also took night walks with my camera on a long exposure and using the moon as a light source made ‘moon drawings’. The experience is truly Romantic, immersed as one is, beholden to and a part of nature.

In my work I want something of the immediacy of drawing: its explosiveness, brevity, rawness but also a type of mark-making that is not consciously directed which informs both the beginning and the final stages of making an image. Initially, I thought that the series would be about the woodland itself, but eventually, it evolved into being more about a process of transformation – of experience, self and material. The work is as much about the materiality of paint and oak gall ink, the chemistry of making the ink and the act of painting and drawing - where the physical act of making work is, in part, an ontological process.

I am interested in differences of rhythm, tempo and repetition, and how they produce irregularity in marks, layers; also colours and their inherent instability. All these contradict the inherent flatness of paintings. Paintings can be weighty, at the same time possessed with a lightness of spirit – both of which are inescapably a part of nature. I believe that painting has the potential to be a transformative experience firmly grounded in the corporeal and that nature and landscape can be a metaphor for human experience, that this can help to create a depth of perception and that nature can give us moments of poetic experience. "

For those of you who are unable to attend in person, we will be Livestreaming the event via our Oriel Q Facebook Page HERE.

 All you will need to do to tune in on the day is go to our Facebook Page and click the Livestream post - you can even leave questions and comments in real-time!