Biography

Sophie’s work explores primarily coastal landscapes in Cornwall and Scotland. She loves to walk her dog and swim, seeking the restorative calm of being in Nature. This extends into her painting, which begins outdoors, using gouache to create small paintings capturing the landscape, its shapes, colours, light and weather. These initial pieces are richly hued and layered, sometimes with materials from the site itself, and accompanied with written prose to capture the story, and then filed into her sketchbooks. In her studio, they develop into larger oil paintings built slowly over time, with colours scratched back to reveal earlier layers. Sophie loves to find the hidden and surprising colour in the neutrals, the shadows, the skies.

Influenced by a range of artists from Turner, Cezanne and Monet to the Group of Seven and Eardley, her work prioritises colour, drawn-in mark making, weather and light to share her response to a place. After graduating with a First-Class degree from the Slade School of Art, Sophie worked in user experience before returning to painting, reigniting her practice while sailing around Scotland’s west coast. In 2020, she moved to live in Cornwall near the Helford River and built her studio near the water.

You can read more about Sophie's background and inspiration in issue 36 of Drift magazine, where Sophie is the featured artist to promote this year's Cornwall Open Studios. Click here to read the article.