When Sarah Burges left her Lewes home for a daily dip at Seaford three years ago, little did she know it would mark a turning point in her art work that was already inspired by the South Downs coast and countryside.
‘I go swimming every morning and, metaphorically, you always bring something back from the beach and on that day, it was a conversation,’ recalls Sarah as she steps out from behind one of the works dominating her combined studio and gallery in Lansdown Place. Outside, a passer-by pauses to admire the striking floral rug, 4ft wide and nearly 6ft long, that’s suspended in a wooden frame.
‘I heard somebody say they were making rag rugs, it was as simple as that,’ she continues. ‘I have always been interested in textiles and used to do quite a lot of sewing when I was younger and make quilts from materials I had collected. I went back and started researching very early rag rugs from the 18th century which were made from whatever materials people could find.’
Her imagination was triggered, so in 2021 the former nurse, who became a professional artist 17 years ago, decided to see if the creative process behind her expansive floral paintings, for which she had become known, could be transferred to rugs.
‘I started off making rag rugs and then I decided to take it a step further,’ Sarah, 64, says. ‘I saw somebody was doing a day’s rug tufting course in Brighton and when I went along, I immediately knew that’s what I wanted to do. It’s quite hard to get hold of Axminster wool nowadays because a lot of factories have closed, but I found one in Halifax and went up there and bought a lot of wool.’
She began making hand-tufted rugs in March last year, and now divides her time between the rugs, her vibrant paintings, running the Lansdown Studios & Gallery and exhibiting her work at regional events, such as Brighton Art Fair, London’s West Street Gallery and the Canvas Gallery in Winchester.
While it’s all a far cry from her time working as a nurse at Eastbourne District General Hospital, Sarah can trace her love of flowers and artistic influences back to her childhood.
‘My mum, Jean, was a very keen gardener and we had a big garden and my father Peter was a photographer at the Sussex Express,’ she explains. Sarah went to Ringmer School, and while studying for an O-Level in art remembers being captivated by the floral paintings and rural scenes of Danish-French Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro.
‘I had this magazine of Pissarro’s paintings which I got when I was 16 and still have today,’ she says. ‘Looking back, there was probably something there with art but it didn’t come out until much later.’
When SEN (State Enrolled Nurse) roles were phased out by the NHS in the 1980s, and with her children grown up, Sarah decided to look for a new career rather than study to become an State Registered Nurse.
‘That involved going to university and I was not university material,’ she says. ‘I am far more practical. I had started doing ceramic restoration as a hobby as it was something to do when the children were getting older. Then I thought there might be an outlet where I could possibly get some work doing repairs for people. I put an advertisement out and had a little work room at home and then I got a studio space at the Hop Gallery in Lewes.
‘I had a lot of work but it was quite difficult to do as it was so small and detailed. In the gallery I was working alongside other people and an artist set up his easel next to me and started doing these huge landscapes and I can remember watching over his shoulder. I was just so interested in what he was doing and the way he was mixing his paints. Then one day I bought a canvas and some materials on the way home and I just started painting and that was how I got into it.’
Opening the gallery a short time later was equally spontaneous. When Sarah heard the lease had come up on the former grocer’s shop in Lansdown Place she took the plunge and didn’t have to wait long for her new-found work to sell.
‘There was late-night shopping in Lewes and someone came in and I sold my first painting and that’s how it started,’ she says.
While Sarah does some smaller paintings, her dramatic landscapes, seascapes and florals form the core of her work.
‘I prefer to paint big,’ explains Sarah, who mostly uses oil on board. ‘I tried painting on canvas but it’s too smooth and flimsy for me. It’s all about the texture and with board there are a lot of nodules and you see different things at different times of day with the way the light falls on it. The boards are quite solid and give a more rustic feel and preparing them is all part of the process for me. Before you put the paint on it has to have an undercoat primer, then a coat of coloured acrylic and then I’ll start with oils and begin layering on the colours.’
For the rugs, Sarah uses durable monks cloth which she attaches to her large frame before drawing a freehand design on the back and using a rug tufting gun to push the yarn through the cloth.
‘I create the rugs in the same way I do paintings,’ she says. ‘A lot of people use a projector to project the image onto the material but I don’t want them to look too perfect and no two rugs are the same. So I just find the middle and draw from the centre out and design as I work. You’re working from the back, so you have to keep going around to the front to see what you’re doing. Because everything is quite large, I have the rugs and paintings on wheels so everything is moveable and can be changed around when I am working on different things.’
The large gallery windows are a showcase for Sarah’s work and, with the rugs taking an average of three weeks to complete, she attracts a regular audience of locals who drop by to look in at what she is doing and see each piece progress from blank board or monk cloth to completion.
In addition to the gallery, she sells work through her website and it has been sold as far afield as America, Canada and Barbados.
‘I sell a lot to people in London and people who have second homes in Lewes,’ adds Sara who lives in the Cliffe area of the town. ‘When people come off the train they have to walk past the gallery so I’ve got a continual flow of people coming past.’
Sarah’s small oil on board pictures, which are particularly popular at Christmas, are priced at £125 and her floral still life paintings and landscapes, featuring views of Sussex such as Petworth, Firle, Glynde and Cuckmere, start from around £450 for smaller works to £2,400 for oils spanning four feet. Rugs are priced from £1,200.
When Sarah’s not in the gallery, or taking her early morning swim, she is often out walking with her Romanian rescue dog, Basil.
‘I’m inspired by the beauty and seasonal drama of the South Downs and coast,’ she says. ‘We are so lucky in Sussex as we have everything and I only have to walk to the end of the road and I’m on a hill. When I’m out I take photos and then when I’m back in the gallery and start painting I’ll work with the photo for about 20 minutes to get the initial line, such as the horizon or clouds. I always start with the sky. Then I’ll get rid of the photo and it becomes my own painting.’
Like her paintings, Sarah’s rugs are works of art. Although many customers do hang them on their walls, she points out that they are there to be used as well as enjoyed visually.
‘They should be walked on as they are very hard-wearing,’ she concludes, as she takes her own walk to the front of her latest rug to check how it looks.
Sarah’s work will be on display at the Lansdown Gallery, 5 Lansdown Place, Lewes, as part of the Artwave Festival from 7-22 September
