Mixing business with pleasure

Sarah Laurie had a childhood filled with the opportunity to be creative but she never dreamed her artistic flair would one day morph into a career.

Growing up on a farm just outside Naracoorte, the onus was on the kids to make their own fun.

“My mum came from a very creative family so naturally as kids we were always encouraged to also be creative,” Sarah said. “We would sew, paint, draw, play with clay, pretty much anything you can think of, and this is definitely where my love of art came from. My parents also had a lot of art in our home too, so it was something that we just grew up surrounded by and encouraged to enjoy!”

But it was just about fun for Sarah and aside from a year of art in early high school, it played no role in her education.

“Once I moved for boarding school I did not continue with art,” Sarah said. “This was partly because I didn’t ever think I would follow a creative pathway in terms of being an ‘artist’ for a career.

“I had plans to work in a creative field such as marketing or advertising, so I guess I deemed other subjects at the time more important. Obviously, that is not the case, and I am so grateful that my life has followed this path.”

It was in 2019 that her artistic talents re-emerged as she established a clothing line with her brother, basically designing graphics to go on t-shirts and Salubrious Hour was born.

“Over the years we have opened two shops and operate an online business, we have also expanded our range to include more pieces of apparel,” Sarah said. “Luckily for me Salubrious Hour and my artworks go hand in hand, with the stores giving me somewhere to display my work as well as giving me a bit more of a platform.

“We started our business because we had always wanted to run our own business and it seemed like the perfect way to combine our love of fashion and art.”

As of this weekend, it briefly becomes more about the art than the fashion when she unveils her first solo exhibition at Karatta Wine Room and Gallery in Robe.

“I am very excited and nervous to be in the gallery,” Sarah said. “So, while it is very daunting putting my work out there to be seen and ultimately, I am sure, critiqued, I am also very grateful to be given this opportunity by Karatta Wines. To be able to show my work in a gallery really is such a surreal experience and I just hope that my art can bring joy to whoever sees it.”

Curating this exhibition has in so many ways replicated what she does every day in her apparel business.

“I use a program called procreate to draw the final designs for our clothing label and I have also done all my final pieces for the exhibition on procreate to,” Sarah said. “Basically, procreate is a digital drawing platform that instead of drawing on paper I just draw onto an iPad.

“I have found this to be a really enjoyable medium for me to use because it allows me to work anywhere which while I am running Salubrious Hour as well as preparing for the exhibition has proved really helpful.

“There is a lot of crossover between our business and my art, I am lucky that the two work so well together and that I am not forced to have to choose between the two.”

Just as her foray into technology has been a journey of trial and error, so has her entire art experience.

“All of my work is self-taught, but I draw greatly from artists and people around me, using this as inspiration,” she said. “That is one of the main things I want people to take away from this exhibition or my art in general, that there are no rules and there is no right and wrong when it comes to art.

“If you are not doing something because you think you are ‘not good at it’ or that you don’t have the ‘right training’ then you really are missing out. I think maybe sometimes art can be intimidating but really art is for everyone.”

And Sarah certainly doesn’t follow any rules but rather relies on her artistic flair and willingness to experiment when it comes to both her apparel and art practice creations.

“At the moment I am loving doing my digital prints, and although these are digital, they are all one of one artworks,” she said. “I want people to know that when they support my art, they are getting a completely unique and original piece. Nearly all of my works start out as a sketch on paper with pencil, I then work from this sketch to come up with my final design.

“I love to work with colour and I love to draw inspiration from where I live now (the beach) and where I came from (the farm).”

To add to her unique approach, she also takes text from books she has read or quotes from people she knows and transposes these as another layer onto her work, resulting in a personal and highly appealing style.

Although cowboys are the dominant theme, Sarah is also inspired by Robe’s spectacular coastline. Local flora and landmarks including the Obelisk are apparent, but once again Sarah’s artistic eye and working method results in imaginative and unique works of art.

For her landscape works, Sarah takes multiple photographs and combines elements from each into a single image using the Procreate program. She then takes days away from each work to refresh her eye, once again using colour to enhance her perception of the local landscape.

Sarah hopes that people leave her exhibition feeling inspired by the creative process.

“I believe people don’t realise how much possibility there is for their own lives,” she said, “There are no rules for being creative: it’s really only what you like.”

This inspiring exhibition is on display from April 28 until June 10 at the Karatta Wine Room and Gallery, 5 Victoria Street Robe.