Born in Cyprus,  brought up in Fiji by the Pacific Ocean and then by the sea near Rye,  Sarah has always drawn inspiration from the animals, landscapes, people and everyday life she has encountered, both in her extensive travels abroad and in the UK.  She has a remarkable talent for observation and a singular ability to render the colour, movement and atmosphere of the scene before her.

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Now firmly established as a very successful travel and wildlife artist with several awards to her name, including BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year. On winning the award the judges said “Sarah has cleverly captured the fluid movement of the cheetah in an organic and unique style. It sings Africa ”. Sarah’s work is held in many public and private collections throughout the world.  She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions for over 30 years, has illustrated several books on Africa and her paintings have been featured on various television programmes.

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Sarah Elder’s own words encapsulate her approach to her work; emotive, imaginative and personal. Her paintings enjoy wide acclaim not only for the wildlife she so powerfully portrays, but also for the sometimes exotic but always intriguing locations to which she travels. Her talent lies in her ability to transmit “the spirit of the place”, some extremely distant, and to our minds, culturally remote. The scenes she brings to life are at once enticingly unfamiliar yet vibrant in their rendition of landscapes and peoples so seemingly alien to our own.

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Always drawn back to the sea, year after year, she returns to Cornwall to paint, longing to move there. 5 years in the making, the fruits of her labour are now revealed in her Cornwall Collection.