Starry nights, surreal animals and intricate laser work are presented by artist Sarah Soward at the Redlands Art Association in the upcoming featured artist show with ceramist Hillary Klem. The show kicks off with an open house Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.
“I’ve got a few different series that I work in concurrently because I can’t sit still very well and I like to do a lot of things at once,” Soward said.
The series of “Starry Nights” acrylic paintings is inspired by constellations where she imagines animals in the sky. “I make [the constellation] something maybe silly, maybe fun and definitely an animal,” she said.
Her latest love is astronomy, which coincides with her artwork being selected through the Lunar Codex to eventually be sent to the moon. Her contribution was part of “Legends of the Moon” in 2022, an art capsule containing art, writing, movies, music and more.
Soward’s surrealist paintings are about making fake origin stories for animals. “I painted a cheetah and the blueberries are huge and the cheetah spots are blue because the cheetah is creating blueberries from its spots,” she said. She calls her style “surrealism lite.”
Soward likes to work in many different mediums, which is how the laser work came about. She creates bees through multilayered laser design work. “The purpose of my art in general is to help raise awareness of some endangered species,” she said. “Bees are one of them and I try to make people love them more or think about them more.”
Her favorite endangered animal is the rhinoceros. In 1999, a friend asked for a rhino painting for her wedding, and through researching the painting, Soward’s fascination with the animal began.
“I’ve always loved animals,” she said. Her grandparents had a dairy farm and she constantly drew horses and cats.
That very first rhino painting became an obsession. “I have no idea how many hundreds of rhino paintings I have painted over the years,” she said. She likes the different shapes and textures of the animal.
“If you lift their foot up, the bottom goes down and it makes this adorable curve,” she said. “And their ears are like swiveling cuteness and I could go on forever.”
“[Art] has always been a part of my life,” she said. When her high school art teacher, Kathy Stewart, said, “At one point while I was working on something, she came over and slammed both hands down on the desk and looked me in my eyes and said, Sarah, you are a painter,” Soward added, “That was like a bell rang inside of my head: Alright, this is my life now, got it.”
Soward has a degree from the California College of the Arts and Crafts in Northern California and got her business license in 1999. Her work has been shown in numerous galleries locally, nationally and abroad. She prefers art collectives because “They pay on time,” she said while emphasizing, “Making it in art is hard.”
Three years ago, Soward and her husband visited friends in Redlands on the weekend of Art in the Park and fell in love, so they moved here from Cathedral City with their robot pets and Soward became a member of the Redlands Art Association.
Her artwork was awarded “Best of Show” at the recent National Orange Show. She’s been a multi-finalist at the Wildlife Artist of the Year show at the Mall Galleries in London. Her paintings have been part of the “Artists 4 Rhino” art exhibition that traveled through Italy. She’s been the featured artist at the Desert Art Center and at the Hawaii Museum of Contemporary Art. She’s been the guest artist at the Art District in Cathedral City and her art has been featured in BBC Wildlife Magazine and Londonist.
Inspiration comes from Van Gogh, Dali and El Greco but also contemporary artists like Sharon Eisley, a fellow contemporary surrealist and friend to Soward, and contemporary wildlife painter Martli Heyns.
Next month, Soward is juried into ART 64 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, where she will participate in painting battles against other artists for two days.
Currently, Soward is working with Ashley Kingfisher on an illustrated version of the Rhinoceros Sutra, an old Buddhist text. “It’s basically a guidebook on how to survive life alone if you need to,” she said and added with a laugh, “It’s all about rhinos, so how can you not.”
Original artwork from both Sarah Soward and Hillary Klem will be on display until June 12.
You can find Soward’s artwork on her website: http://sarahsoward.com/
Read more about the Lunar Codex here: www.lunarcodex.com
About the Redlands Art Association
Address: 215 E. State St., Redlands, CA 92373.
RAA website: redlands-art.org
RAA social media: facebook.com/RedlandsArtAssociation and @redlandsartassociation on Instagram.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sundays.
