sara macculloch

The main thing that compels me to paint is a desire to make a record of a specific place and the experience I have had there. Each of my paintings is an attempt to hold onto a moment that is fleeting - to turn an ephemeral experience into something solid, permanent. 

The challenge for me is always to capture what a place looks and feels like, but also to remain open with the painting as I am making it. To see what may happen in the studio, how the paint wants to behave. I also want to allow for the experience of that moment in the studio to enter into the fabric of the work. I don’t start with an exact idea of what the painting will be when I am finished. There is something intangible I am looking to get to - a sense of the place and a moment - and I never really know how it will come about. Sometimes it doesn’t, and after a day of painting, I wipe the whole surface off.

I almost always do my paintings in one go - one session in the studio. This is to allow for clarity in purpose, but also to give the work a sense of immediacy. I want the paintings to be direct and fluid. There is a fine line between overworked, unfinished, and resolved paintings, and I am always trying to find that balance.