Szikora, Sarah Jane

• Ace
• £199.00
• giclee on paper, mounted in deep bevel acid-free mounts, unframed
• 480 x 630mm
• edition of 295

About the artist

Originally from County Durham, the North East has always been home.
Despite coming from a large English/Hungarian family, I spent most of my early years being fairly solitary, scribbling and doodling until I was sure it was the thing I was most passionate about.

I couldn't wait to leave school and following an art foundation course in Harrogate, I obtained a Higher National Diploma in illustration at Cleveland College of art. Under the wing of an inspiring Life drawing tutor, this is where the distorted figures in my work began.

On leaving education in 1991 I was given help by the Princes Youth Business Trust to make a modest living from creating papier mache models, flying pigs, polar bears, you know, the usual thing! I once presented a massive orange anteater to Prince Charles whose security team removed it swiftly - I think it went for inspection by the bomb disposal unit.

Then, Joy! My student paintings were all sold from a little gallery in York, it was time to say goodbye to the giraffes and aardvarks. I was going to be a REAL artist. Bolstered by the positive response to my big, bonny lasses, I got on with building a collection of new paintings while my long suffering chap, Ian, toiled for a year marketing my first collection of fat ladies on greetings cards. During the early years, to make ends meet I also created a range of cards using real jelly babies. These were very popular, though for compassionate reasons I no longer eat them.