About Sarah
Contemporary Northwest artist, Sarah Goodnough, creates expressive art that reflects the beauty and mystery of life. Inspired by nature and the human spirit, Goodnough combines an intuitive style of painting with techniques using texture, layers of color and strong composition. Her paintings are distinctive visual experiences with sensitivity to mood and emotion.
Born and raised in Massillon Ohio, Goodnough moved to Portland in 1997. She graduating from Miami University of Ohio, with a Bachelors degree in Mass Communications in 1995. Pursuing and creating art her entire life, she is a self-taught artist.
About Sarah's Art
Goodnough's work celebrates life. Her artistic style is expressive, using vibrant color, strong composition, and layered texture. She paints abstracted viewscapes, pulling real life scenes into redefined realities of wonder and brilliance.
"I work in an intuitive style of painting. I do not plan or have an exact predetermined outcome. I allow the creative process to evolve and spontaneity to flow from a painting’s beginning to end. I begin by laying down a kaleidoscope of colors on the surface with brush or pallet knife. This mosaic background of random shapes and colors allows the space to be free of any preconceived notion of how something looks in reality. From this point I start laying in the basic concept of the painting. Combining texture and building up layers of color with glazes, splatters, scratches and drips, also adding and removing paint with different mark-making tools, the painting evolves into an exciting picture with energy and a life of its own."
Artist Commentary
I had a passion for creating artwork for as far back as I can remember. However, I put my dream of being an artist aside for more practical career choices. After nearly 15 years of my adult life passing me by, with the help of a few great mentors, seminars and one grand event, my life changed course. I began to believe in my abilities as an artist and my life long dream became reality. I now find purpose in creating art that elevates people and connects the with positive emotions. Also, I have an unexpected found purpose in encouraging and inspiring others through my personal story. We all are capable of achieving our dreams if we just get out of our own way and get into action.
On my quest for personal growth, it is important for me to consistently search outside my creative limits.Doing this, I discover new ways of telling a pictorial story and continue to challenge myself.I continue to find my own truths through my experiences and want to relate those through the visual world.I am inspired by connecting people to an idea, thought or message.My work is a stand for creating possibility, finding beauty and awareness in all things, and developing self actualization.I am in gratitude for all the gifts from the divine universe and to be living a life I love.
I choose to depict in my work the natural beauty of the world. I also draw upon the internal beauty and positive human spirit that dwells within each of us. I believe in staying present to life and to take each day as a gift, rather than focusing on thoughts that can burden and entrap us. This is the message I want to convey to the world around me.
How often have you looked at a piece of art and quietly asked yourself, "What does it mean?" Maybe even on a subconscious level, because our brains are wired to find order and meaning in everything. An image can speak to people on many different levels, perhaps meaning something totally different than what the artist originally intended. The image becomes something that transcends the artist. It becomes universal; something "meant" for everyone, interpreted by their own unique and individual life experience... that to me is the magic of art.
Artist Direction
I find that I often think how my life experiences and thoughts can be translated into art. Sometimes it is inspired by a discovery about a person, an experience in nature, or even a thought or pervading feeling that intrigues me. I automatically think about how I would translate it visually.
My grand artistic goal is to visually explore concepts that teach, inspire or uplift the viewer. I want to empower others to be their best, and to follow their dreams for who they want to be in the world; to make personal choices that leave them feeling inspired, alive, and living an exemplary life beyond the ordinary.
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