Sally Pudney is a landscape painter working in an expressive realistic style. Her paintings focus on the landscapes, rivers, coast and estuaries of East Anglia, and the ancient trackways of Southern England. She works mainly in acrylic on board, often with added oil pastel.
During her early teaching career in Norfolk she painted landscapes in watercolour, but Sally began to paint seriously in acrylic in 2005. Since then she has exhibited in mixed exhibitions at the Haylett’s Gallery, the Geedon Gallery and at other exhibitions in Essex and Suffolk. Her work is also being exhibited now at the Buckenham Galleries in Southwold, and Church Street Gallery in Saffron Walden.
Her work has been short-listed for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She holds regular Open Studio events at her home in Lexden.
“The focus of my interest in painting is light and colour. I love painting the huge East Anglian skies, the quiet lanes, the woodlands and the little boats around the estuaries of Essex and Suffolk. I try to capture the way light falls on the surface of water and mud, and the colours, shadows and movement of trees and fields against those vast skies.”
Sally has undertaken a number of painting projects in the last few years. 2016 saw the Twelve Months in and Essex Wood series, visiting and painting Hillhouse Wood just north of Colchester every month throughout the year. During 2017, the focus was the nature reserve at Fingringhoe Wick, on the Colne Estuary, resulting in twelve paintings of the varied habitat. In 2018 Sally’s project was Four Seasons on the Stour. Starting at Wrabness in January, she worked her way up river each month, finishing at Long Melford in December. As with other year-long projects, a small book has been published containing images of all these paintings. In 2019 she worked on the coast of Suffolk and Essex in a project called On the Edge: The North Sea Project, painting at many seaside locations between Southwold and Southend. She also embarked on an occasional series called Landlines – paintings which show any feature which makes a line in the landscape.
In 2020 Sally visited an arable field on a local farm for Twelve Months in an Essex Field. This resulted in twelve large paintings, twelve drawings, a number of smaller paintings, plus a book and various items of merchandise featuring images from the project. They were exhibited in 2021 at The Barley Barn Summer Exhibition, Church House Farm, Aldham CO6 3RT
In 2021 Sally started an on-going series called Essex Paths & Bridleways prompted by lockdown walks during the COVID 19 pandemic.
2022 has seen the start of two new painting projects. Twelve Months on an Essex Island exploring Mersea Island each month, which will result in a series of 12 large paintings, plus 12 small pastel drawings of ‘Findings’ from Mersea beach, a calendar and a book. Sally’s second 2022 project returns to an earlier interest in lettering art. PAINT 7 is a series of small framed lettering paintings using seasonal quotations from the American poet e.e.cummings. There will be seven releases during the year, each one of seven near -identical paintings, although each painting is a unique original.
Sally’s interest in walking long distance trails has resulted in two series of work, one featuring the Peddars Way in Norfolk, and another series of twelve paintings of The Ridgeway from Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire.
“I love to be outside in the natural world and I hope my paintings convey something of this life-enhancing pleasure to the viewer.”
Since 2012 Sally has organised (along with Graham Bell) annual Arts Festivals showing work by invited professional artists and makers each year. In 2019 they launched a new venture, the Anglian Arts Project. The first exhibition, featuring eight professional artists, was at the Open Art Space in The Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe. Although the 2020 exhibition had to be cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the next exhibition was in September 2021 at the Essex Wildlife Trust’s Naze Centre at Walton-on-the-Naze on the Essex Coast. In 2022 there will be two shows – at Little Bentley in May and at the Sentinel Gallery in Wivenhoe in September. See the Anglian Arts Project webpage for more details.
2005
Started painting in acrylic
2007/8
Exhibited with Colchester Art Society
2009/10/11
Haylett’s Gallery, Maldon: Summer Mixed Exhibition
2012
Finished teaching to concentrate on painting
Co-organised and exhibited at first Lexden Arts Festival
2013
Haylett’s Gallery, Maldon: Summer Mixed Exhibition
Geedon Gallery, Fingringhoe: Autumn Mixed Exhibition
2014
Short-listed for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Lexden Arts Festival
Haylett’s Gallery: Summer Mixed Exhibition
Participated in Colchester & Tendring Open Studios
Geedon Gallery: Autumn Mixed Exhibition
2015
Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe: Spring Opening Mixed Exhibition
Lexden Arts Festival
Haylett’s Gallery: Summer Mixed Exhibition
Participated in Colchester & Tendring Open Studios
2016
2016 Geedon Gallery: Spring Mixed Exhibition
Naze Tower Gallery: Solo Show
Haylett’s Gallery: Essex Women Artists
Colchester & Tendring Open Studios
2017
Geedon Gallery: Spring Mixed Exhibition
Lexden Arts Festival
Participating in Colchester and Tendring Open Studios
2018
All Saint’s Arts Festival, Maldon
Haylett’s Gallery
Colchester & Tendring Open Studios
Artspace, Woodbridge
Geedon Gallery
2019
Buckenham Galleries, Southwold (ongoing)
Haylett’s Gallery, Maldon ‘Summer Sensations’
Colchester & Tendring Open Studios
Caxton Gallery, Frinton on Sea
Framewerks Features : Featured artist for November
Open Art Space, The Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe – Eight artists in an exhibition organised by the Anglian Arts Project.
2020
Buckenham Galleries, Southwold (ongoing)
Church Street Gallery, Saffron Walden (ongoing)
Haylett’s Gallery (online only)
Anglian Arts Project exhibition – cancelled due to COVID pandemic
2022
Buckenham Galleries, Southwold – ongoing
Church Street Gallery, Saffron Walden – ongoing
Anglian Arts Project – Little Bentley 14-17 May
Anglian Arts Project – Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe 16-21 September