Sally Trueman

The garden is my inspiration for my art. I work both in pastel and oil. Pastels require minimal tools, just paper and a stick of pure powdered pigments held together by a binder. I find pastel an extremely tactile medium that sits comfortably between drawing and painting. It’s a good medium to rapidly capture colour and changing light conditions in the garden.
When I paint in oil, I try to capture the luminosity of the garden; I am interested in the texture of the oil paint on the canvas. I like to build up a “heavy” texture, which creates a focus of interest. Thin glazes produce an area of emptiness within the canvas. These glazes allow light to appear to radiate from within the painting.
I frequently scrape and sand down the paint surface, and I then repaint the canvas, the result of subsequent scars on the canvas are crucial to the overall painting and are like calligraphic marks that are inherent markings, just like punctuation is essential to a written page. These marks can be dominant or subtle, depending on the layering of paint and washes. Sometimes, they can be so delicate that they are only faintly visible, veiled under layers of paint. On the other hand, they can be pulsing, defined and palpable in the foreground. Viewers often find my brushwork seductive, and they trail their fingers over the canvas to gently trace faint lines so delicate that they are hardly visible.
My future work is on the verge of becoming semi-abstract.

Established Artist
International Exposure
Art Fair Participant
Covered by the Press
Paintings in Public Collections

All my paintings and pastels are shipped or sent flat-packed with the utmost care to ensure they arrive in good condition between two sheets of sturdy board and bubbled-wrapped for extra protection. All artwork is unframed so you can choose to suit your taste.
Delivery is included - only in the U.K.

Artistic background

Sally Trueman – Born 1960 - Kingston, Jamaica.

Sally, the daughter of a British army officer, was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Depending on her father's army postings, she spent her formative years living in various countries, eventually the family settled in Sussex. Sally's artistic career began in the late 1970s. To support herself while in medical school, she used the pseudonym Heinrich Stoltz to draw animals. These sold through auction houses such as Bonhams, Sotheby's, and Christie's. A chance meeting at the Pavilion Gallery, owned by the Hughes-Hallett brothers, introduced her to Royal portrait painter John Hughes-Hallett. This meeting sparked a friendship that lasted over two decades. John Hallett, who studied at the Chelsea School of Art, was friends with the renowned British artist Claudia Williams, known for her large, colourful portraits. With John Hallett as her mentor, Sally focused on portraiture, she was commissioned to paint notable figures, including the President of Calvin Klein and French footballer Zinedine Zidane. However, her emphasis on portraiture was not permanent. In 2000, she received a commission to create a series of six large canvases, measuring 250 x 220 cm, that depicted the landscapes and colours of the South of France. The paintings took nearly four years to complete and now hang in a private museum in New York. In 2005, she exhibited at Frances Roden Fine Art in London and continues to showcase her work through international galleries today.