Sandi Westwood
Sandi Westwood grew up in Hertfordshire and her one ambition was to be an artist. Her life path took a different direction and she became a scientist , working all over the world. Despite this she always made time to paint and gradually the artist in her began to emerge and grow. She finally settled in North Norfolk and since having her studio built in 2002 she has been selling her paintings through exhibitions and galleries, hosting open studios, carrying out commissions and teaching.
Sandi loves working with oil paint - it holds so many possibilities in the way it can be manipulated and the effects that can be achieved. She also uses pastels for an instant effect and often experiments with other mediums.
She finds inspiration in the natural world but tries to explore the hidden dimensions we can’t see with the naked eye. Sometimes a fully formed image will enter her mind but often a glimmer of an idea will evolve on the canvas and continue evolving throughout a series of paintings.
While always open to new ideas, for the last few years Sandi has been trying to evoke the feeling of freedom and being drawn towards the light, in her paintings of birds in flight. She calls these ‘Bird-escapes’. She also has a particular fondness for barn owls, having been inspired by a barn owl that sometimes hovers outside her window. She tries to imbue her bird and animal images with an ethereal quality by the use of auras and iridescent or metallic paint.
She is currently experimenting with a more spontaneous technique and producing small paintings around the themes of pathways of the mind and soul journeys.
Visitors to Sandi's studio are welcome all year by arrangement and she also works to comission and offers tuition. If you would like to make a purchase, original paintings would usually be hand delivered whereas prints and cards will be subject to post and packaging costs.