Sarah Ross Thompson

Born in London in 1965, Sarah moved to Norfolk in 1970 going to the Norwich High School for Girls (1976-1983) before heading back to London in 1983 to do a BA Hons in English and Classics. After a brief spell in Derbyshire found herself in the pretty town of Wimborne, Dorset with two small children. 

A few months after arriving in Wimborne, Sarah joined a local life class, where the inspirational tutor, Minna Harvey, quickly sowed the seed that she really ought to go to Art School. With her encouragement and the support of her husband she enrolled at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design as a part-time student. Graduating in 1997 with a distinction. With the proceeds from her first solo show she bought an etching press and set up working from home.

Collagraphy was an easy choice of technique, as an inexpensive medium using found objects to create the printing plates. Without the acids needed for etching, it was also a safer technique to experiment with at home with two small children. After 20 years plus of 'experimenting' she considers herself to be essentially self-taught and believes this helped her to develop a recognisable thumbprint or style.

1997 - Submitted two Foundation final pieces to the National Print Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. Both were accepted and one used as an illustration in the catalogue. The following year she was offered her first solo show as part of the City of London Festival of Arts.

1998 - She converted a room in her house in Dorset to a purpose-built studio, housing the etching press bought from the proceeds of the London exhibition. This allowed her to run occasional workshops from home and show visitors around the workspace,. This in turn led to participation in the biennial Dorset Arts Weeks event for many years.

2013 - After twenty years in Dorset, it was time for a change and the family moved to Lochgoilhead, in Argyll. Having exhibited widely throughout England, and established a solid gallery base in the South, it was now time to see how hard it would be to start again in a remote Scottish community.  Sarah quickly made contact with a number of Scottish galleries who all seemed keen to show her work, particularly as she was awash with new ideas, seeing this new landscape with fresh eyes.

2014 - Several of her tree collagraphs were featured in a book published in America called, Green Art: Trees, Leaves, and Roots [E. Ashley Rooney, Margery Goldberg]

2018 One of her iconic drystone wall images was used as the front cover of Between Stone and Sky by Whitney Brown, an American drystone waller and writer.

2019 – Sarah visited Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand in the Spring, spending time with printmaking studios on the Central East Coast, Canberra, Melbourne, the Southern Highlands and Yarrawonga.

2020 - She was commissioned to produce the cover for Patrick Laurie's Native which was published at the beginning of 2020. This piece required some serious consideration as the requirements pushed me out of my comfort zone into buildings and wildlife as part of the brief.