May Art Auction Lot 38 - Harris Interior With Amelia by Sarah Longley
Born in Belfast, Sarah Longley is the daughter of poet, Michael Longley, and literary critic, Edna Longley. She studied art at Manchester Metropolitan University, then continued her education at Edinburgh College of Art. She currently lives and works in Scotland.
Her work is often characterised by a dynamic, lively use of colour and an expressive, personal response to her subjects, which include still life studies, landscapes, and portraits. She has also created work in response to her father’s poetry collections. Her portraits particularly offer opportunity for self-reflection, attempting to capture a realistic representation along with an emotional response.
While Longley’s work is descriptive, it is also exploratory through her personal engagement with the subject, as seen in her attentive detail. Lot 38, Harris Interior with Amelia, highlights Longley’s attention to detail through various patterns, trinkets, and decorations effectively capturing the atmosphere of the scene. This layering between a descriptive representation and Longley’s personal response to her subject strikes a balance and achieves an interesting perspective of a realistic representation.
In a review of Longley’s solo exhibition, Aidan Dunne wrote, ‘The strength of her work rests not only on her assiduous attention to the demands of each area of subject matter, but also, very much, on the consistency of her dark-edged vision’.
Her work has been exhibited at the Royal Ulster Academy, the Royal Scottish Academy and at the Royal Hibernian Academy. She has also exhibited with the Peppercanister Gallery, Fenderesky Gallery, and Mullan Gallery.
Born in Belfast, Sarah Longley is the daughter of poet, Michael Longley, and literary critic, Edna Longley. She studied art at Manchester Metropolitan University, then continued her education at Edinburgh College of Art. She currently lives and works in Scotland.
Her work is often characterised by a dynamic, lively use of colour and an expressive, personal response to her subjects, which include still life studies, landscapes, and portraits. She has also created work in response to her father’s poetry collections. Her portraits particularly offer opportunity for self-reflection, attempting to capture a realistic representation along with an emotional response.
While Longley’s work is descriptive, it is also exploratory through her personal engagement with the subject, as seen in her attentive detail. Lot 38, Harris Interior with Amelia, highlights Longley’s attention to detail through various patterns, trinkets, and decorations effectively capturing the atmosphere of the scene. This layering between a descriptive representation and Longley’s personal response to her subject strikes a balance and achieves an interesting perspective of a realistic representation.
In a review of Longley’s solo exhibition, Aidan Dunne wrote, ‘The strength of her work rests not only on her assiduous attention to the demands of each area of subject matter, but also, very much, on the consistency of her dark-edged vision’.
Her work has been exhibited at the Royal Ulster Academy, the Royal Scottish Academy and at the Royal Hibernian Academy. She has also exhibited with the Peppercanister Gallery, Fenderesky Gallery, and Mullan Gallery.
