So the Story Goes...
I started painting since I could hold a brush in my hands. In a funny kind of way, my story is a bit like Giotto's: one day the town's grandees came up to me and asked me to draw something. I did, they liked it, and so started my career as a professional artist. Illustration, graphic novels, portraiture, abstracts...Then one day most of my work was stolen from the boot of the car. My muse was stolen with it - I was devastated. I didn't paint properly for quite a few years after that. Then David Bowie died and sent me back my muse. I guess I realised at the very moment that I had to go back to what was most natural for me: art. Thank you David...I wish you hadn't left us, but here are my paintings, as a gift back to you, more urgent than ever.
Philosophy
My philosophy, in a nutshell, is that painting, be it the portrait of an individual or pure abstraction, is in essence but a refelection of the human condition. Art has the power to condense our shared experience, thus giving us a glimpse of the Universal. All art is one - there is no meaningful distinction between the art forms. Ultimately, they are all about the same thing. Art is the search for some kind of answer to the deepest questions, a search for authenticity, for truth - ἀλήθεια. When I paint, I don't overthink and I never plan too much - it's just something I have to do. I get completely absorbed and involved in a painting: my work is instinctive and direct. Expressiveness needs to be in every stroke, every line. Actually, the best paintings kind of do themselves - and maybe all the mystique of painting, the proverbial Muse and all that...it is all true.
Technical Notes
Different techniques and styles are useful to express different things. Each painting has its own internal raison d'etre, each image itself suggests an idea of how it could, or should, be painted. Hence, oil, acrylic, mixed media - it's all good! I am maybe best known for my large format works in gouache, my favourite medium: it is wondefully high pigment, matte and faster than oil, so I can finish a painting before life has come in the way and changed my mood. I regard myself as a draftsman first and foremost. Drawing comes natural to me, and underpins my every painting. I draw in pencil, charcoal or in colour with my trusty vintage Prismacolor pencils, a collector's item that has that allows me to acheive exceptionally vibrant colour and malleable, expressive lines. What I am looking to achieve is a delicate touch, a pervasive sense of beauty and balance that expresses emotion with a kind of minimalism: an economy of colours, lines and composition.
Selected Press
“The Galerie Stardust [...] have discovered a rare pearl, a painter that is not only gifted but knows her subect, giving us some veritable little works of art"
Rockerparis, 15th June 2019
"Sara Captain has recently emerged as one of the most succinct portrait artists in the UK"
Dublin Bowie Festival, 13hth January 2019
“beautifully executed works that really capture [David Bowie's] magic."
Bromley Times, 4th November 2019