sarah jane therese
About
About me
While I did not spend the early part of my life working as an artist, I always recalled the thrill of painting in colouring books and immersing my hands in finger paint as a child. I was heavily committed to my career in retail, fashion and marketing until I was 50. Looking back, I can see that my love of colour, design and aesthetic beauty was always there in the products that were created in the businesses I managed.
In 2012, I enrolled in a colour & design course, ostensibly to complement my interest in the colours I used in my cashmere business. The moment my brush dipped in paint, I was enthralled and my long dormant love for painting ignited again. I’ve not stopped painting and drawing since.
Those painting and drawing skills later transferred to clay surfaces. I began a ceramics course in 2016, revisiting my love of wheel throwing since a brief encounter with it as a teenager. Once I began wheel throwing again, I was hooked. I would find my hands moving in sync with my dreams at night as though creating a pot. It gives me a thrill every time to see something beautiful and rounded come to life from those simple earthly materials.
As it turns out, it was at that course I met my second husband, Rowley Drysdale. He was the ceramics teacher, but our relationship did not commence until some years later. Now we create together most days in our studio at Quixotica Art Space, his beautiful property on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. You never know what might happen when you sign up for a pottery class! I’m conscious of how lucky I am in many ways, including the wonderful asset of having a ceramics expert alongside me in the studio, on hand to give advice when needed. Much of our life revolves around ceramics, whether it is chatting about it over the dinner table, traveling to see wonderful ceramic work and makers overseas or just catching up with friends who are also immersed in the world of ceramics. It greatly enhances my understanding of creative clay practices.
Nowadays my focus is on wheel throwing, usually with porcelain clay, and surface decoration, with underglaze, slip, paint brushes and engraving tools. I enjoy the multitude of processes involved, from throwing the pots, creating the designs, and then applying them, slowly and carefully, to my pots.
My designs are usually inspired by plant life, most often the flowers, leaves and wild grasses around our studio, and the small birds and insects that live amongst them.
Concurrent with my ceramic work, I continue to draw and paint with ink, watercolour and acrylic paints. I never travel without my art paper, pens and paints! Occasionally I add some texture with yarn and fabric, no doubt influenced by my former career in the fashion industry.
After years of practice, I feel I am finally hitting my stride and was delighted to become a finalist in Siliceous Ceramics Awards in 2021 and the North Qld Ceramics Award in 2022. I look forward to being up in the studio each day, and further refining my craft.
Thank you for taking an interest in my creations.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
North Qld Ceramics Award - Finalist Townsville 2022
Siliceous – Ceramics Arts Qld - Finalist Cooroy, Sunshine Coast 2021
Martin Hansen Memorial Art Awards Gladstone, Qld 2019/20/21
Quixotica Art Space Cooroy, Sunshine Coast 2019/20/21/22/23
Pop Up Art Exhibition Cooroy,Sunshine Coast 2020
Lindfield Art Show Sydney 2015
Kings School Art Show Sydney 2014
Kings School Art Show Sydney 2013
Art for the Heart Melbourne 2013
EDUCATION
TAFE, East Coast Qld, Nambour, Qld Certificate III – Visual Arts 2016
International School of Colour & Design, Sydney Diploma – Surface Design 2014
International School of Colour & Design, Sydney Diploma – Graphic Design (part) 2013
International School of Colour & Design, Sydney Certificate IV - Colour & Design 2012
University of Melbourne Bachelor of Arts 1978
COMMUNITY ART ROLES
Australian Wood Firers United Vice President 2019 – current
Noosa Open Studios President 2018
Noosa Arts & Crafts Association Vice President 2017
Noosa Open Studios Marketing Manager 2017
PREVIOUS CAREER HISTORY
I held CEO and marketing positions in large companies across Australia & New Zealand, including Sheridan, Holeproof, Esprit, OPSM and Mambo. From 2005 to 2012, I founded and ran my own fashion retail business, pink zebra, with 5 boutiques in Melbourne & Sydney, then owned my own online business, YUM Cashmere, until 2016.