Welcome to my world of art, teaching, and lots of old stories!
I am a UK based artist, currently living in Warwickshire. I started out as a primary school teacher, and after a few years of teaching decided to realise my dreams of working as a self employed artist. These days, my art and my teaching background have come together, as now I also teach art classes to all ages.
My favourite thing to paint is portraying early versions of fairy tales or folklore onto canvas. They are always painted in oils but sometimes combine other mediums such as resin and gold leaf. They usually have a dark side due to the story, but are beautified for your eyes’ enjoyment (‘Run, Red!’ is a particularly good example of this, and has been one of the most popular of the series).
I also picked up watercolours again in 2019, after one of my classes requested learning more about the medium. After exploring some new techniques, I developed my own style with it and found I enjoy painting animals in this way. Mainly due to having my first baby in 2020, painting animals in watercolour is something I have continued, as they are much tidier and easier to put away and get out with a baby around! It means that my work will probably be changing over the next few years with more watercolour animals coming out, and maybe just one or two special oil/ mixed media pieces for the Fairy Tale & Folklore series per year.
Since the start of 2020, I have been working as an illustrator. I am currently finishing off one project, and intend to take a break from illustrating so I can concentrate on my new and growing family (illustrating in traditional painting format is a big, big project but was fantastic to do during the lockdowns with nothing to do but grow a baby).
Before the Covid pandemic, I regularly taught five art groups of both children and adults in a week, alongside extra workshops at The Mill Arts Centre in Banbury and to social and private art groups on a few weekends. When the world gets back to normal, I intend to continue teaching art face to face!
Every year I showcase new artwork at exhibitions, most regularly at Belper Art Trail, The Stratford Art Society Summer Exhibition, Kineton Art Group Annual Exhibition, and some smaller and intimate fairs and trails around England. I have also had work displayed at Meander and Mooch Gallery in Newark, and Capital Art Gallery in Eltham.
In between working, I jointly host The Art Show on the community based radio station Welcombe Radio, and volunteer with two art groups: Kineton Art Group and the Stratford Upon Avon Art Society. I am on the committee for both, running their websites and helping with organising events, competitions, and exhibitions.
I aim to keep you up to date with my life and work as an artist via my blog, Instagram and Facebook, but feel free to email me too at smiles-art@outlook.com if you wish to talk to me directly.
Sarah Miles - Artist, Illustrator, Teacher 