Sarah Jane Szikora
Coming from a large family Sarah Jane Szikora was constantly looking for ways to amuse herself and soon discovered that drawing and painting were by far her favourite. Sarah Jane also made frequent trips abroad to her father’s native Hungary, encountering for the first time the larger than life ladies and gents who were probably the earliest influence for the characters in her paintings.
Although she found school to be an unpleasant experience Sarah Jane enjoyed art and music classes, so it was natural for her to pursue an artistic career. Sarah Jane Szikora completed a foundation course at Harrogate College of Art where she studied a range of subjects, including photography, sculpture and graphics. During this time Sarah Jane maintained a lifelong interest in simple drawing, and always enjoyed the life class most.
From Harrogate Sarah Jane Szikora went on to study illustration at Cleveland College of Art. The same interest in studying the human form continued and led to the development of the extreme figures in her work.
Sarah Jane Szikora left Cleveland, taking with her a HND with distinction and a handful of paintings, but Sarah Jane didn’t yet know how to turn her studies into a job, so the painting went on the backburner.
In 1991 Sarah Jane Szikora set up a business called ‘Wild Thing’ hand making papier-mâché models, ranging from twisted newspaper sheep to 7-foot giraffes. These were sold from a shop in York, and kept her busy for a couple of years until she decided to display the work she had left college with. The ‘big girls with attitude’ sold surprisingly quickly and encouraged her to concentrate on painting instead as her chosen career.
Since then Sarah Jane Szikora has been painting non-stop. Along the way her partner took responsibility for publishing her work as greetings cards until Sarah Jane found an agent who in turn introduced her to Washington Green and Halcyon Gallery in 1995.
Sarah Jane Szikora has since had her work published as limited edition prints, greetings cards and jigsaws as well as having various exhibitions over the last 4 years.
Many things inspire her. Looking at great art is both a humbling experience and an invigorating one, and generally fires her up for a new piece. Among her favourite artists are the awesome Stanley Spencer, LS Lowry, Renee Magritte and Sarah Jane loves the recent surrealist paintings of Michael Sowa. Occasionally Sarah Jane Szikora get sparks from film or TV, and she likes to keep her eye on fashion and interior design. These provide the latest ‘looks’, which Sarah Jane Szikora tries and uses to keep her paintings fresh. Sometimes Sarah Jane is responding to social issues. For example, much of her work has focused on turning around the negative relationship, that women, in particular has with their bodies, thanks to the media presenting perfect airbrushed models for us to live up to.
Mostly though, Sarah Jane Szikora draw her ideas from simply observing people and human behaviour.
If Sarah Jane is struggling with a blank canvas, she take herself off to a local town centre, there before her is an endless supply of imagery to work on. Often Sarah Jane Szikora need only see a mundane scene such as the purchase of a bag of chips and she is on her way.
Another great source of inspiration is the wealth of embarrassing incidents that unites us all. Who hasn’t at sometime been caught out by a skirt unknowingly tucked in the back of your knickers, or accidentally spraying tap water down the front of your trousers! Need Sarah Jane Szikora say more?
In her case, palettes are old saucers bought in bulk from the charity shops as Sarah Jane Szikora can dispose of them at the end of every piece. Sarah Jane Szikora prefer to work on stretched canvas or canvas board because Sarah Jane Szikora paint almost exclusively in oils. It is such a flexible medium and gives the richest colour, nothing else has tempted her away for long, Sarah Jane Szikora loves oil pastel but it doesn’t lend itself to the detail Sarah Jane Szikora likes to put in. Sarah Jane Szikora has worked in ordinary pastel but Sarah Jane Szikora tends to reserve that for more sombre pieces.
A typical painting begins with one or two very quick scribbles to determine composition. Sarah Jane Szikora don’t do roughs or tries out colour, as Sarah Jane Szikora is too impatient and likes to get something down on canvas quickly. Sarah Jane Szikora then draw an outline in pencil, and rather than paint one figure or object at a time, Sarah Jane Szikora build up the whole picture in layers. It is possible to overwork a painting and although Sarah Jane has rarely had to do it, she would rather throw weeks’ worth of work in the bin than present something Sarah Jane Szikora is unhappy with.
Sarah Jane Szikora almost never uses reference, except for maybe when Sarah Jane Szikora is painting animals, preferring instead to rely on imagination. Sarah Jane Szikora does has a large mirror though, which is useful when she is struggling with a figure. If there is no one around to model for her she can often be found posing ridiculously in front of it, hoping that Sarah Jane Szikora can remember what she sees when she gets back to her easel.
Most paintings take her an average of one day per figure so a heavily populated piece may take a couple of weeks but on average Sarah Jane Szikora does about 38 paintings a year.
Sarah Jane Szikora wake up every day and consider herself very lucky not to has the kind of job that requires leaving home early and commuting to an office somewhere. A typical day starts when her partner has left the house and Sarah Jane Szikora potter around doing household jobs until starting work, at around 9 is. If she is on day one of a new painting Sarah Jane Szikora maybe visit the library or gallery and spend some time generating ideas. If Sarah Jane Szikora is lucky this can take a matter or minutes or, if the horrible spectre of artists block threatens to set in, she may need a whole day or two.
Sarah Jane Szikora absolutely loves what Sarah Jane Szikora does and has no problem with her own company, her 3 cats provide enough companionship while Sarah Jane Szikora is working, although essential to healthy production is a steady stream of tea, biscuits and radio 4.
On a good day Sarah Jane Szikora will work through to 5 or 6pm, then does the usual leisure things, cooking, seeing friend’s etc. However what is more likely is a series of distractions including phone calls and visitors who consider her fair game for coffee and a chat. If Sarah Jane is at a difficult point in a painting, she can find herself weeding the garden or ‘organising her draws’ and generally getting stuck in work avoidance mode. You has to be reasonably self disciplined if working from home, so on these interrupted days Sarah Jane Szikora usually work late to make up the difference, this means Sarah Jane will finish working at 8 or 9pm (luckily Sarah Jane is not the type of artist who suddenly gets inspired at 3am in the morning). At this point Sarah Jane Szikora reward herself with a large G&T, then vegetate for the rest of the evening. Cheers!