A visual artist's journey with nature

The art gallery awaits you!

Welcome to the gallery!

Hello, I’m Sarah-Ann, a Y1 Environmental Studies student from NUS! My blog will centre around visual arts and its relationship with the environment.

Art has always been a constant in my life. The earliest memory I have of creating art was drawing dinosaurs (yes, I had a dinosaur phase) on every piece of recycled paper I could get a hold of during my kindergarten days. Creating something with my own hands was a form of catharsis and it’s something I came to enjoy. Since then, my passion for visual arts grew and eventually, I started to pursue visual arts.

Growing up as an art student and creating my own artworks has opened my eyes to how wasteful the arts industry is. To complete numerous art projects, I frequently needed materials, making trips to Art Friend to get brushes, oil paints, canvas, wire, sprays, you name it. Sometimes, I would only use these items for one assignment and then never touch them again, but instead shove them into the cupboard. Over the years, the pile of leftovers grew.

The problem truly hit me when I realised how many half-used art materials I had stashed away while cleaning up. Many artists and patrons of the art industry do not realise how unsustainable art-making can be. As a budding botanical illustrator, I wish to explore how I can make the most of my remaining materials, as well as how I can alter my art practice to be more sustainable in the long run.

My wall painting

Wonder where I did this wall painting? (Hint: Look at the tree!) Stay tuned to find out!

6 Comments

  1. Hey Sarah! I love your wall painting!! I love going to Art Friends hahaha!! I used to buy loads of paints and styrofoam boards for my DIY projects. I still have a bunch of supplies and I can definitely relate to the wastefulness of art-making. I remember exhausting a lot of paint, glue, cardboard and styrofoam during my numerous trial and error phases of my projects. I’ll definitely be staying tune to your blog!

    • Sarah-Ann Tham

      September 5, 2020 at 3:07 pm

      Hi Joseph, thank you for appreciating my work. We might be visiting this place soon so you may have the chance of seeing this work in person! I’m glad I am not the only one experiencing this issue. I do hope that other artists will be more aware of this problem and take steps to minimise the environmental impacts of their artistic practice.

      • Hi Sarah! This topic really caught my eye, since I do a fair bit of art myself. Definitely can relate to both you and Joseph, I have tons of unused paints and brushes collected over the years and making art does get wasteful at times. Hope to get to see more of your artwork and what direction you’ll take in this blog!

        • Sarah-Ann Tham

          September 5, 2020 at 7:15 pm

          Hi Jia Wei, thanks for stopping by my blog. I didn’t expect so many people to be interested in this topic as well. I’d love to see some of your work too!

  2. Hi Sarah!

    I love your artwork a lot! I am also interested in drawing but I only picked up this as a hobby this year. And I do computer graphics drawing instead of traditional drawing. Anyway, it is very interesting to link visual arts to the environment. Hope to see more of your interesting posts in the future!

    Zuming

    • Sarah-Ann Tham

      September 25, 2020 at 12:15 am

      Hi Zuming, thank you for dropping by my blog! I do digital drawings too but I didn’t post them here. I’m glad you like my artwork!

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