about

Sam is a figurative artist based in London. She paints in oil on plywood panels and on paper. 

Her work focuses on the portrayal of experience and emotion through the positioning and presentation of female figures. She enjoys posing her models (and often herself) into distinct configurations, odd entanglements of limbs with awkward foreshortening to characterise a sensation. A heightened palette with unexpected colour juxtapositions serve to complement the curious compositions of her figures in their environments.

Since returning to the UK after a BFA (Hons) in Fine Art from Oregon State University in 1997, Sam also works as a scenic artist, producing art and painting scenery for film, television and theatre.

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Sam also takes portrait commissions, mostly of children and teenagers. Her  portraits have appeared in many prize and open exhibitions, such as the BP Portrait Award 2016, 2018, the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition and Royal Society of Portrait Painters . In 2017, she was commissioned to paint Dame Valerie Beral for Oxford University as part of their Diversity in Portraiture project and in 2018 she appeared in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV show. She is a member of  Contemporary British Portrait Painters. 

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If you're interested in commissioning a portrait please get in touch. 

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2020

• Perceptions - works by the CBPP    The Space, Cass Art, London

2018

• BP Portrait Award    National Portrait Gallery, London

• Lynn Painter-Stainers' Award    Mall Galleries, London

2017

• The Full Picture : Oxford in Portraits    Bodleian Libraries, Oxford

• Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize    Piano Nobile, Kings Place, London

• Royal Society of Portrait Painters    Mall Galleries, London

2016

• BP Portrait Award     National Portrait Gallery, London

• The 248th Summer Exhibition    Royal Academy of Art, London

2015

• RBSA Portrait Prize    RBSA Gallery, Birmingham

• Society of Women Artists    Mall Galleries, London