"Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist while growing up. "
--Pablo Picasso
--Pablo Picasso
Sarah Ricchiuti was born in Normandy, France. Like her coastal town of Le Havre, wiped out during the closing months of WWII and subsequently rebuilt*, her art is intensely committed to a new start. In all her paintings, there is something new, something borrowed, something salvaged. Working from a diversity of materials, she never crafts the same composition twice. Every piece is completely unique. The result is an eclectic, varied, and fresh body of work.
“As a child, I was fascinated by Egyptian bas-reliefs and prehistoric cave paintings. I felt as if they were drawing me into their world or stepping into mine. So now, before every painting, I ‘sculpt’ my canvas to create a 3-dimensional framework and I indulge my love for textures using sand, gesso, fibers, paper, recycled materials and acrylic. I look for the grain and consistency that will best communicate the essence of the subject. Ultimately, you -the viewer- would decide where to stand to experience the painting.”
A self-taught artist, Sarah pursued drawing and painting in her teens until pressured by the school system into a more “practical” path. In 1993, she left France, learned English, and earned a business degree in the United Kingdom. Following a career in international PR, she moved to California on a whim, and there she shed the corporate cloak..
A private and passionate individual, Sarah immerses herself in art as a way to mentally travel and channel her energy. She is attracted by symbolism and the transitory. “I like to portrait moods and feelings attached to sensorial memories. I recapture and frame what strikes me. I paint focusing on the peace or emotion I felt at a particular moment in time…the majesty of coastal trees, the intense sunset of Normandy, the torment of a flamenco dancer.”
*The center of Le Havre was rebuilt in modernist style by Auguste Perret and designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2005.