When did you start your creative practice and why?
All my life I have been creatively curious, I have always been interested in all types of making. When I look at any type of art I always want to know how it was made, and I try to deconstruct it in my head and work out the process and how it was created.
I love process of making, the feel of the materials, the swish of a brush as it glides over the paper, the changing pressure of pencil in my hand, the roll of it between my fingers, creating gestures as the marks dance across the page. One mark leads to another; one technique leads to another. I can often overcomplicate the process, give myself constant challenges when making a piece of work. I know the short cuts but I always choose the long way round. It is because of this curiosity, this love off experimenting, the lack of desire to keep reproducing something the same that I feel safe with, that has led me to try out many ways of working, many materials, many techniques,
I always want too push things too far(creatively)… try things that might not work… but what if they do????
I remember first being aware of my appreciation for colour and the joy I gained from the feeling of the marks being made when at infant school. We had a pot of pencil crayons in the centre of our desks. There was one particular stray crayon, it was orange, it was chunkier, it was made of a softer lead, full of a richer pigment. All my drawings were orange. I loved that orange crayon.
My very first experience of printmaking came in the third year of junior school. It was potato printing, I had bought into school two potatoes so I could have a real good go at it, but someone had forgot their potato and I had to give them my extra one, so I missed out on making the more complicated design which I had imagined.
In my fourth year at junior school we made Lino cuts prints, mine was a version of Jemima Puddleduck printed in Prussian blue.
At senior school I studied design rather than fine art, this is where I discovered the possibilities of printmaking. We were lucky enough to have access to some old screen-printing frames and screen-printing tables, this is where I began my love of layering marks, working in slices, building one colour/pattern at a time.
For my A levels I reluctantly had to take fine art rather than design as there was no design option. However, this was where I realised I could paint, rather than just draw, although it all felt a bit loose and open ended.
We had to do a dissertation. On anything it seemed… so I decided to study colour and the history of colour usage in art through time.
This was for me one of the most important research studies I ever did. (As an Illustrator rather than Fine Artist we were taught very limited art history on my degree.)
I briefly researched cave art - medieval art and then I started to read about the Impressionists, the Cubists, the Expressionists, the Fauvists, the Pointillists. It was amazing, for a young girl who had been brought up in mining village, who had never really had the opportunity to travel far to a city to see the art of the masters. To suddenly become aware of and gain an appreciation of the history of art, the art movements, colour usage, the power of art and the energy of marks. It was amazing, my curiosity and been truly awakened. From then on I decided Art was my future, so I applied for an Art Foundation course at Chesterfield college in Derbyshire.
This gave me a chance to try out even more techniques including ceramics, photography and more printmaking and my career as an Artist truly started.
How would you describe your artistic style to someone unfamiliar with your work?
My works involves creating layers of marks both drawn and painted, recreated by combining original printmaking techniques.
I work spontaneously, with an experimental approach. I do not use a sketchbook to develop my ideas , instead the images develop on the page from my imagination and become the finished artwork, nothing is expected or planned, and every image is a surprise.
What themes or ideas do you find yourself returning to most often?
I have gained much inspiration from the many curiosities that I have seen on my visits to National Trust properties all through my life.
My family work for the National Trust on the Hardwick Hall Estate in Derbyshire, from being young I have been immersed in the stories of Bess of Hardwick, and surrounded by her collection of internationally renowned tapestries, embroideries and Tudor portraits. These have always been a constant source of recurring inspiration, from their composition to their content of rich pattern and weird and curious animals.
My aim is to entice the viewer to look deeper into my imagery and get involved.
What is your creative process from idea to finished piece is it always the same?
I enjoy using a range of mark making techniques working in an impulsive and intuitive style, I have an idea in my head, it flows out through my marks onto the page.
Recently I have been mainly using the collagraph technique, including smaller elements of monoprint and dry point print techniques to create my original prints.
This is the technique I used to create the original print that was selected for a prize at the 2025 Hopton hall Month of Art.
Collagraphs prints are prints taken from a collagraph plate (a collage)
To make the Hopton Hall collagraph plate I first created a drawing on cartridge paper, I cut into this and make a simple stencil which I stuck onto a sheet of grey board. I then collaged materials of different textures onto this, building layers, some elements will absorb the ink, while others may resist it.
I am a collector of textures, anything and everything as long as it is not sharp I will use it.
Different papers, thick, thin, shiny, patterned, wallpaper, textured paper. Pressed flowers, leaves, lace, doylies, net, linen, seeds, sweet wrappers, plastic, foil, glue, plaster, grit, acrylic gels, fillers, sequins, beads, stickers, tissue, tape, stamps, wool, thread, it goes on.
Then these are cut, scrunched, folded, layered, ripped, scuffed, scraped, incised, hammered and hit, torn, stuck.
Layers built on layers, overlapping, cut away, added to.
All these textures will hold the ink to a different degree, that is pushed into the surface of the collage. Some will create tone, some line, some soft, some sharp. Patterns on patterns.
Ink is also rolled onto the surface in different colours catching the highest areas of the collage. Many different colours are added all at once. Inking the printing plate can take up to 3 hours.
I print the plate using an etching press, using intaglio techniques. I soak my paper so that its fibers within it plump up like a sponge. Then the paper is blotted, surface water left on the paper will resist the ink. The softer damp paper is pressed into (between layers of soft wool blankets) the marks within the plates surface, lifting the ink from within , transferring the design onto the paper.
The print is an original taken from the original artwork (the collaged board) the print is embossed with textures as well as colours, the ink is absorbed by the paper, it no longer sits on the papers surface but is drawn into the fibers, like material. The embossed print echoes the surfaces textures it was taken from, sculptural.
The process is complex and I love it.
So many stages, so many techniques, I have devised my own method.
I am definitely not a traditional printmaker in that I stick to a particular process, that I have mastered and that I keep replicating. Rather than creating editions of prints, I prefer to make every print a different adventure, I feel every moment, every mark matters, I love to learn, discover and make every print differently.
Do you ever have creative blocks, how do you keep motivated?
I don’t get creative blocks, my mind is constantly full of images, even when I am not actively creating work.
What stops me form creating work is highs and lows of confidence. There are times when my mind won’t allow me to create the marks that I imagine and this is veery hard but all part of the creative rollercoaster which I know most artists experience at some point.
How does your immediate environment or location play in your work?
I create my best, most focused artwork in silence, in my own little bubble.
This is not always possible in a busy family house.
A lot of my main thinking and planning of ideas begins as I am just drifting off to sleep.
Then ideally, I work spontaneously and intuitively in response to these dreams when I wake… although often I find they have to wait until after the school run, chores etc…
Who are the artists (past or present) who have strongly influenced you?
For my A levels I reluctantly had to take Fine Art rather than Design as there was unfortunately no Design option at my sixth form.
We had to do a dissertation about anything it seemed… so I decided to study colour and the history of colour usage in art through time.
This was for me one of the most important research studies I ever did.
I briefly researched cave art - medieval art and then I started to read about the Impressionists, the Cubists, the Expressionists, the Fauvists, the Pointillists.
It was amazing, for a young girl who had been brought up in mining village, who had never really had the opportunity to travel far to a city to see the art of the masters. To suddenly become aware of and gain an appreciation of the history of art, the art movements, colour usage, the power of art and the energy of marks. It was amazing, my curiosity and been truly awakened.
Suddenly, although only on the pages of a book, I became aware of the great masters.
Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Matisse, Van Gogh, Seurat… the revolutionary marks they made the colours they used transformed the art world and still greatly influences the world of art today.
One of my true hero’s and greatest influence is David Hockney.
However, it is not only great artists that influence my artwork.
I studied a degree in Illustration at Norwich School of Art, graduating with a first-class honors degree. Norwich is full of Churches and pubs and while there I think I went drawing in most of them.
As soon as I visited Norwich it felt like one of those places which was full of stories, it had a lot of history. Our first project was to visit all the museums and make posters for them. This was the best for me. I loved drawing and spent the next 3 years doing exactly that. Looking and drawing, everywhere, everything, every spare minute I wanted to draw. The addiction to drawing gave me the best foundation to being an artist I could have. I would go out with my large drawing board and paper, inks, pencils, chalks, and would just sit quiet, on my own, in my own world, absorbing the place, the colours, the smells, the light, the textures, the noise. I have never been one for replicating a place as a photograph would. I would always feel compelled to tell the stories of the place, the thing, that I was drawing, giving it life, a voice, character.
Next, I went to London to study on a post graduate course in Illustration at Central Saint Martins. I continued this love and total absorption in my drawing, I almost lived in the museums, the galleries, constantly looking, constantly curious. The Museum of Mankind, the British Museum, the V&A as well as the quirkier ones. The Bethnal Green toy museum. A museum of medicine, lots of different places to draw.
The V&A was where I probably first studied and truly appreciated the skill, beauty, colours, the layers of threads, all weaving stories…in tapestries, on clothing, shoes, gloves, stitches another form of marks. I also loved the two-dimensional lack of perspective and the quirky compositions and naive style.
Also, at this time in London the popularity and awareness of Outsider art came to the forefront of the art world. I remember there as a big exhibition at the Hayward gallery in 1996 called ‘Beyond Reason: Art and Psychosis featuring with works from the Prinzhorn collection. Showing works of individuals who were not traditionally recognised as artists. Also seeing the Sensation exhibition, the following year showing works owned by Charles Saatchi. Including the artists Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst.
An exhibition of Basquiat paintings at the Serpentine all influenced me profoundly. This was a revolutionary combination of artistic styles all climaxing together…
I became more and more interested in Folk art, art made by the untrained artist, by children’s art, this is what I would seek out. I made a series of drawings inspired by drawings of American Indians, telling the stories of how they thought the worlds were created.
I loved the raw marks, the loose energy, these works affected me deeply and definitely gave me more confidence in my own way of making my art.
After leaving London I was lucky enough to be part of and completed several artist residencies. These opportunities gave me time to live in some varied and unique places, to experiment with materials, without the pressure of deadlines, or a brief to stick too. Being part of these residencies was a time of complete indulgence I learned so much. Time to be myself, as well as time to work with other inspirational artists, it gave me time to take risks.
On one of these residencies, I lived at Burton Agnes Hall near Driffield in East Yorkshire. A wonderful Elizabethan manor house, in the top of the house is the Long Gallery. It has an intricate plasterwork ceiling with spiraling honeysuckle and lots of animals and birds hidden within. As I lived in the house with the owner, I as able to draw when all the crowds had gone, the rich Chinese room, the lavish furnishings, the wooden paneling, the sensory garden, as well as the stories of the ghosts that lived there too.
Another residence was at Wysing Arts near Cambridge. Here I worked alongside ceramists, sculptors, giving me an insight into different disciplines of art. Ben Wilson(outsider artist) built his “Tree Keep” in the grounds, I t was a wonderful house mad by weaving together different sizes of branches.
I made a series of drawings inspired by drawings of American Indians, telling the stories of how they thought the worlds were created.
I loved the raw marks, the loose energy, these works effected me deeply and definitely gave me more confidence in my own way of making my art.
After leaving London I was lucky enough to be part of and completed several artist residencies. These opportunities gave me time to live in some varied and unique places, to experiment with materials, without the pressure of deadlines, or a brief to stick too. Being part of these residencies was a time of complete indulgence I learned so much. Time to be myself, as well as time to work with other inspirational artists, it gave me time to take risks. Within these branches, faces, animals, stories were carved. A sanctuary I used to sit in and draw. Stephen Bird was also a resident Artist there at the same time, his naive style of paintings and his magical thrones constructed of found things. I was like a sponge everywhere I went I wanted to try everything and explore every medium.
In 2001 I was awarded a AA2Art colleges residency at Hull School of Art, I had full access to the printmaking department in which too play, and I did.
Creating a large collection of etchings under the title of ‘Quite Contrary’, I curated a group illustration exhibition with the same name, which I also exhibited in at the European Illustration Collection with other illustrators.
However unfortunately the more etchings I made the more I started to notice that my health was suffering. I was having serious breathing problems due the over exposure to the hazardous mix of chemicals involved in the etching process. I was advised to stop!
But I loved/l still love printmaking and started to research alternative methods to create etched plates safely.
Luckily supported by Yorkshire Arts I was able to attend courses by the revolutionary printmakers Keith Howarde and Friedhard Kiekeben who between them had developed alternative healthier ways to create prints safely. Over the next 5 years, supported by Arts council England, I continued to research, practice and experiment further with their techniques, I went on to train and educate others in colleges, print studios and print workshops, and I set up my own Non-toxic print studio where I could practice and teach others the new safer methods of printmaking. This was based at the Harley Artists Studios on Welbeck Abbey Estate in Nottinghamshire.
This is where today the Portland Collection is exhibited another great source of inspiration.
How has your style or perspective evolved over time?
My work in constantly evolving and never stands still, I am still learning and experimenting as much as ever and it is this curiosity that keeps me going and keeps my work alive.
What tools, materials, or techniques are essential to your practice? Is there a colour you just couldn't do without?
My favourite tools are my hands, they allow me to put down on paper what my mind imagines, to show emotion and tell stories that I could never tell in words.
How do you balance artistic expression with practical concerns like income or marketing, social media?
The balance of being creative and also running the business side of things, doing accounts, orders, buying materials, doing artist proposals, website, social media etc is very hard, something that I find does not get any easier, but doing one without the other will not work either.
If you could give the younger you advice, what would it be?
My advice would be to not get distracted from making my own artwork, to believe and have more confidence in my own unique creativity. Do not be influenced by negative comments of others and to follow my dreams. This is also advice I would give to any young person whatever their dreams are just follow them. Life whizzes by too quick, grab every opportunity and do what you Love.
Have you got a project / award/ residency/ or idea are you excited to share with us?
I have recently been invited to provide a series of workshops for English Heritage and the Margaret Cavendish Mind fest project, based at Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire.
The Project, begins in Bolsover on the 1st August 2026, and aims to celebrate the life of Margaret the trailblazing, eccentric and remarkably prolific 17th century English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer and playwright.
Margaret lived with her husband William Cavendish at Bolsover castle, where they spent years rebuilding it after the civil war into an extravagant ‘pleasure palace’ designed for entertainment rather than defense.
In the workshop you will be invited to recreate the portrait of Margaret, celebrating her curious character. Inspired by her forward thinking, radical dress sense and quirky ways.
Anyone can get involved in this all-day drop-in workshop based on a ‘paper doll’ game played at the time when Margaret was alive.
The game involved a painted portrait set inside a frame, it came with delicate transparent costume plates, which could be layered on top of the original portrait to reveal the face beneath. The owner could become anyone they imagined, a nun, a gentleman, a winged beast or animal.
Come along and help us create your version of Margaret. What do you think she might wear, what would she look like, and what would she think if she were here in Bolsover today?
If your work could evoke one feeling or reaction in viewers, what would it be?
In my work I want to ignite a sense of childlike wonder and curiosity. I aim to start a story which I invite the viewer to continue. I love working in layers, which are each like separate thoughts intertwined to draw the viewer in and to entice them to look deeper and explore the textures, colour and mark making.
What is your website and how do we find you on social media?
I have recently launched my new website which is very much still in progress.
www.sarahgodfreyart.com
Through the website I aim to share my passion for printmaking. It includes an online gallery of the collections of my work and original prints available for sale.
There is information on printmaking workshops I am holding and opportunities for you to get involved in.
I am also putting together a series of online workshops which can be viewed and worked along with at individuals own pace, these will be added to the website in the near future.
If you would like to keep informed please subscribe to my newsletter via my website.
My Instagram account can be viewed @sarahgodfreyart
I use my Instagram account to document the processes I use and to tell the individual stories of my original prints as they are created, well as giving out full details of the content of workshops I am holding.
