Sarah Bell - Artist and Printmaker

Sarah is a professional artist and printmaker living in Penzance, creating paintings and prints related to the sea and her home town. Sarah’s images often portray strong females inspired by her sea-swimming friends, combined with images taken from black and white photos of the Olympics in the twenties and thirties, or film from the forties.

Since starting the gallery three years ago, Sarah’s paintings and screen prints have found homes in the US, Canada, Germany, South America, India, China and Singapore to name a few.

In the 1980s Sarah trained in illustration at the prestigious art school at Kingston University where she found her love for making joyful art. She went on to live and work as a high profile illustrator in Amsterdam for 10 years before meeting her husband Nigel, in Devon, in the late 90s.

Sarah has just been chosen to design 18 flags for Penzance Promenade this year! We can expect colourful images celebrating the sealife around Mounts Bay. She will collaborate with Penzance marine specialist Katie Maggs (@tonicofthesea) who will help provide inspiration, knowledge and some amazing reference photos from under the sea. There are plans for prints, a colouring book, educational resources and workshops on the theme of Mounts Bay sea life.

https://sarahbellart.co.uk/
Insta: sarahbellart_pz

1.    What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My greatest achievement personally is helping to keep my daughter alive and sane during the many years of serious illness she had throughout her teenage years. She had a heart transplant at Papworth Hospital five years ago at 21, and our small family really went through the mill: it had repercussions throughout every aspect of our lives. My husband Nigel kept us steady through many storms over many years.

Business wise, one of my biggest achievements is having been able to make my living from art my whole life. Whilst it certainly hasn’t made me rich, I’d rather compromise on money rather than being creative and doing something I love. The previous generations of my family had to work in cotton and paper mills in very hard conditions for little money. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have been born in a time and a country where so many opportunities have been available. A couple of centuries ago I’d probably have had three options: penniless wife and mother of innumerable children and dead at 36; sex worker or working cleaning fireplaces in the local cotton mill owners’ “Big House”!

I’m also really pleased that I finally got to move to Penzance five years ago, after many years of hoping. Our area; the people, nature and history inspire nearly all my art. I feel part of the community of amazing supportive women here. I no longer feel like a fish out of water!

2. What motivates you to do what you do?  

I’m an artist; I love looking at things, thinking about things, noticing things, making things. It’s my calling. Making things with my hands is really important to me: digital stuff just exhausts me mentally and makes me feel frustrated.

3. What do you owe your mother? 

The gift of love. Knowing that you were wanted, as a child, and loved unconditionally gave me such stability growing up. We were a poor family in terms of money, but knowing that my mum loved me so much and was always supportive of me was beyond value to me. She also insulated me from my dad’s anger and depression: ever present in our house. I was always aware of it, and affected by it, but her resolute cheerfulness, good nature and sense of humour got me through. My dad’s family had a history of mental illness, which has been passed down into my generation. Fortunately my mum comes from a big family of eight. I had four aunties and three uncles. I was always around my aunties when I was growing up and I could see what a support network they were for each other.

4. Which women inspire you and why?

Virginia Woolf. I came across a copy of “A Room of One’s Own” in a second-hand bookshop when I was at art college in London at the age of 21.  I found her message so powerful. About how women throughout history had had their creativity repressed by a worldwide society run by men. Of becoming a possession of someone else as soon as you married: yourself, any money, property, children became the property of your husband. The speech she gave about the need for a small income and a room of one’s own in which to have the time, peace and space to be creative.

At the time I read the book I was revelling in having a room of my own for the very first time in my life, a tiny room with a bed, a wardrobe, a bedside cabinet, and a sink, at my college Halls of Residence.

I have remarkably little in common with Virginia Woolf! I don’t come from a highly cultured metropolitan family, with an aunt who bequested me a small monthly income for life. I don’t move in intellectual circles, and in all honesty I find her novels pretty hard going. But I admire her for the quality of her thoughts; her opinions on what women needed, and the beauty with which she expressed them. I also admire for her integrity in the way she lived, persisting with life as long as she did with the mental health issues she had to deal with.

Female war journalists: Lyse Doucette, Lindsey Hilsum and Kate Adie. I really respect any woman who put themselves in foreign, hostile warzones, often in countries where women are kept inside the home, with few freedoms, rights or access to education. I’m a Quaker, and Quakers believe in non-violence, non-judgement and equality for all. Sometimes I struggle with the concept of pacifism when seeing powerful countries invading and dominating smaller, less powerful countries or communities with fewer resources. My natural instinct is to fight back. But diplomacy and mediation can only be the solution in the long term.  Seeing reports from these journalists reminds me of how truly fortunate we are to live in a country which, despite all the things we complain about, is still one in which we can express ourselves. But I believe also that we need to be proactive and vigilant to make sure that people who would like to take those rights away from us don’t succeed.  I’ll always remember something that Lyse Doucette said when she was on Desert Island Discs: “Home is the most beautiful word in the English language…”  There are so many displaced people, both globally and tight here in the UK. I’m so grateful to have a home and stability.

My mum, Olive Altham, who taught me to be honest, be kind, to speak up for myself and believe in myself.

My daughter, Eliza Bell (who I’m proud to say, is a former Hypatia Woman of the Month!) who has incredible energy, strength of will and character. She’s gone through so much with so many challenges to her health with a chronic lung condition and surviving heart failure. She created an amazing podcast which supported thousands of others going through the organ transplant journey, raised lots of money for the hospital that saved her, and now has a successful company called Penporth Marketing. Her new office is just above The Hypatia Trust on Chapel Street. She is a self-made woman!

My Aunties: Doris, Lillian, Mary, Mildred. All factory workers when they were young. They had no educational opportunities but were all intelligent women.  Strong, kind, funny and supportive. The backbones of their families.

My English Teacher at Secondary School, Sue Hunt. She encouraged my love of literature, theatre and public speaking. She coached me to speak in public and helped me find my voice. Still my friend, and still inspiring.

Faye Dobinson. A fellow artist, Penzance resident, wonderful woman. She rallies our community, speaks from the heart, began the Monday Night Peace Gatherings and is a big inspiration to me. I’m sure she’s already been a Woman of the Month, but if not, I’m nominating her. (Hypatia edit: Faye has!)

5.     What are you reading?

Books are a huge part of my life. I go to bed early every night to read for a couple of hours; it’s non-negotiable. If only I could feel the same about exercise! I’ve been alternating four books over the last month.

Gabor Mate, “Scattered Minds”: The origins and healing of Attention Deficit Disorder.

I know there’s an epidemic of us women discovering or suspecting we have ADHD. I thought it was just a lot of hype until my coach suggested that my chaotic life might have something to do with the possibility of ADHD. Who knew the contents of this book would all feel so familiar?

Oliver Burkeman, “Four Thousand Weeks” Time Management for Mortals.

Former Time Management specialist Burkeman managed himself into burnout and decided to take life more slowly. Our lifetime averages out at a shockingly short four thousand weeks. Time to use that time well rather than worrying about the way that other people are using it ( or not using it).

Sharon Blackie, “Hagitude”

As older women we can often feel invisible. But in fact we hold remarkable power in what we’ve have experienced, seen, done and thought. Our voice can be influential and a force for good if we think it is and if we allow it to be. So many women feel lost in mid and later life and we need to support women to regain their self-belief, importance and strength. Our world needs us!

Alan Furst, “The Foreign Correspondent”

I can’t not have a novel on the go! Stories are so important. This one is set in Paris in the 30s and features an Italian journalist who’s been hounded out of Mussolini’s Italy. Fascism is taking over Germany, Italy and Spain. He secretly works for an underground resistance newspaper whilst working as a journalist for Reuters news agency. Quite riveting….

6. What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?

As I’ve almost always worked as a freelancer and have been my own boss, rather than working within companies, I think I’ve been more fortunate than many women.

However in my personal life, my first marriage gradually fell into very traditional gender roles and I found myself shrinking in order to keep the peace. I was losing my sense of self and becoming a shadow. I felt oppressed, depressed and ignored. I finally found the strength to leave. The following year was the worst of my life: feelings of guilt, depression, worthlessness, and because I was the one to leave I had no home and spent a year sofa surfing and house sitting. But I’m so please I made that move and eventually rediscovered what made me “me”. My female friends kept me afloat.

Now I’m married to a wonderful, kind man, Nigel, who keeps me steady when I’m rocky and supports me in everything. I’m glass half-empty; he’s glass half-full. We’re equal and a good team.

7. How can the world be made a better place for women?  

If women had equal access to good education, control over their own fertility, money, political power, and had a choice as to whether or not they followed the local religion or societal expectations, this world would be a much better and, I think, more peaceful place.

8. Describe your perfect day

Breakfast in a good cafe with my husband and the newspapers. A good trawl in a bookshop or two; a walk by the sea, a bit of sketching outdoors, hearing birdsong, being amongst trees. A cocktail or two followed by a Japanese meal with my girlfriends. And a book at bedtime!

9. We've noticed there aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you like to see remembered?

There could definitely be a statue of Virginia Woolf, and one of Barbara Hepworth too, in St Ives. And there could be statues of female farmers, flower pickers, bal maidens from the mining industry, and female fish packers who contributed to Cornish society, supported their men and brought up the families in poor and challenging conditions. We need to redress the tradition of statues featuring mostly men who made a lot of money, killed people or held a lot of power.

10.  Give us a tip?

Try to stay kind and strong.