Art in the Lowcountry With Sarah Schools
It’s said that every person has a calling just waiting to be discovered. If so, Sarah Schools didn’t have to wait long to find hers. Sarah has always been drawn to art and has lovely memories of sitting at the kitchen table with her sister Mary, working on school art projects well past bedtime. Now in her twenties, Sarah devotes herself entirely to her art. “It’s a lot of self-management. I paint from nine-to-five, and have a daily checklist for everything that needs to get done,” Sarah explains.
This nature-loving soul is inspired by wide open spaces and gorgeous sunsets, ultimately moving her to delve deeply into her creativity. “Having gone to college in the mountains and now living close to the ocean in Charleston, South Carolina, both environments have played significant roles in my life,” Sarah shares. “I’m very drawn to the ocean but I also love painting trees. I love it when branches look funky and knobby—it’s so whimsical!” Sarah says, realizing how much her surroundings animate her. “Charleston has beautiful oak trees. I love drawing or painting them in the early morning with all the lovely shadows. And the skies...the sunsets here are unbelievable!”
“I love it when branches look funky and knobby — it’s so whimsical!”
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Photo by Ben Schools
Sarah creates beautiful oil paintings, watercolours and digital art. The latter, a blend of fine art and digital technology, allows her to create prints and stationery products. Grateful to have majored in graphic design within an arts department, Sarah took courses in the fine arts while pursuing a degree that would easily lead to finding work once out of college. “Graphic designers are needed everywhere, and it’s a great way to be in an artistic environment while still having a stable job,” Sarah says. “My background in graphic design is proving to be very useful to me now. I can make prints of my art and I’m really good at editing them and at creating social media content.”
“Graphic designers are needed everywhere, and it’s a great way to be in an artistic environment while still having a stable job.”
After graduation, Sarah landed a job as a graphic designer for artist Ruth Chou Simons. “I took her art and transformed it into a variety of products, including prints, notecards and packaging. I also did research and worked on mood boards, all of which helped me develop direction in a collection or series,” says Sarah. During those seven years, Sarah honed her design skills while learning all she could about painting from Ruth.
Sarah wishes for all her paintings to feel dreamy and glowy, and they most definitely do. Her brushstrokes are soft and her colours, both muted and bright, soothe the eyes and immerse us in the beauty of the Lowcountry, from its gorgeous coastline to the hidden natural gems of its countryside. “I love the smooth creaminess of an oil painting,” Sarah admits.
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Photo by Chloe Purpero Johnson
A planner, Sarah can anticipate potential trouble, so she cleverly paints from top to bottom to ensure a smear-free painting and develops her colour palettes ahead of time, gravitating towards rich yellows, bright blues and peachy pinks and producing her own black. “I always mix different colours to get black instead of using the black straight from the tube. I’m able to create a much richer black this way,” Sarah explains. “I always start with an underpainting with orange, pink or red hues and then paint over it. I love to see all the hints of warm colors peek through. It adds so much texture and cohesiveness to the painting,” Sarah says. “I always know what a painting will look like. In addition to the planned palette, I have photo references and make sketches and accurate drawings before even picking up a paintbrush. I’ll pivot partway through if I don’t like the direction it’s taking.”
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Photo by Chloe Purpero Johnson
When a painting starts to feel stuck, Sarah has a group of artist friends she can lean on. She adores bouncing ideas off them. “It helps me feel the most creative and makes all of us better,” she says. Naturally social, Sarah adores making new creative friends. “Even just going to art events here in Charleston, I’ll be out and meet another artist that I connect with and say, ‘Hey, let’s get coffee!’”
Sarah is currently showing her work at Common Good in Boone, North Carolina. Many of her prints and stationery products can be found at many gift and home décor shops.
Sarah’s biggest wish? A line at Anthropologie. Her openness towards her artwork, and her sensitivity to beauty, space and home mean it’s likely only a question of time before Sarah’s well-suited dreams of seeing her art on pillowcases, dinnerware and other Anthropologie home products come true; her style just fits.
To see more of Sarah’s work, visit Sarah Schools Art or follow her on Instagram.
Photo by Ben Schools
TEXT BY FATIMA RIZZO