Sarah Higgins

Sarah, who first studied Fine Art, Theatre design and Photography, then Spatial Design at Kent Institute of Design, Rochester, left college in 1990 at the peak of the recession and took on a vast range of mediocre jobs ranging from bar work to selling concrete block paving.Sarah married fellow KIAD student, modelmaker Paul Higgins in 1992 and pursued her writing ambitions with some success, while still keeping up with the occassional artistic commisssion.After becoming a parent in 1997, Sarah also managed to find time to design the covers and produce the internal illustrations for a few books (children's novels and a gay-themed short story book) for a UK publisher.She had success with a short story as part of the Canterbury Festival Celebrations, coming second in their Canterbury Tales Competition and the story was dramatised and broadcast on BBC Radio. As a result, she was contacted by a leading agent who showed interest in her first novel. She was also interviewed by Mariella Frostrup on BBC Radio Four's Open Book. She has since been published in magazines, online and has had a story included in a collection of short stories called 'The Creature In The Rose'.In 2005 in conjunction with her youngest child starting full-time school, Sarah finally realised that she does not have to 'choose' between being a writer and being an artist. She decided to go all out to do both and in 2006 she joined the New Art Centre, Chatham as one of their studio artists.Portraiture and figurative work are her speciality but Sarah will follow a whim to wherever it takes her. "For me, the essence of painting a good portrait is not merely acheiving a likeness; it is creating an image that tells more about the sitter than a photograph. A good portrait steals a bit of soul from both sitter and artist, developing a presence of its own."Sarah is currently finishing the final rewrites of her first novel and hopes for future success. She combines her love of art and literature by persuading good writers to let her paint their portraits!View her art website at www.sarahlangstone.com(And now a bit especially for the search engines... Commission a portrait, art, artwork, portraits, paintings, drawings, fine art, contemporary art, detailed work in acrylics, oils, watercolours, pastels, ink and wash, pen, charcoal drawings from small scale to large scale. Interior scenes, landscapes and still life work incorporated into portraits. Artist is happy to take on demanding, dynamic large scale work, the more challenging, the better!)