Sally Rumball

I am a South African artist, recently moved to the UK with my husband of 25 years. We love London, and the freedom and access to cultural and historical venues, and the pockets of nature that emerge from the cracks. After many years of work in diverse industries, including film/TV, I returned to university in 2008 and was a awarded my Visual Art BTech degree (with cum laude) at age 40. For several years my work has been inspired by our green world and human/animal relationships, and particularly the conflict and damage caused by human over-consumption of natural resources. I am drawn to our primate family, excavations in the seemingly endless search to understanding ourselves better, and the messages that certain animals present to us: the monkey occupying one's thoughts and dreams is a reminder of the inner child, the innocence of youth, uninhibited playfulness and not taking oneself too seriously, laughter and frivolity, connection and community. My works are a combination of stylised realism and abstraction, via an exploration of joyful colour and spontaneous mark-making. In painting each animal I acknowledge their 'person'-al characteristics, their uniqueness - I see them as individuals - advocating their desire to live and thrive as a species, in their natural environments. I leave you with a monkey blessing of unbridled creativity and practical problem solving, aswell as finding the hidden meanings in events and interactions, and ultimately celebrating achievements, big and small.