About Sarah
A wonderful opportunity to live in Kalamata, Greece in her early 20s, began her immersion into painting, as she absorbed Greek life and culture. Sarah would take her box of paints out, sketching from life the narrow-stepped pathways and streets, the colours in contrasts of light and people around her. Painting and sketching outdoors, awakened memories of her early childhood growing up in Chile, the familiar light, hilly, narrow streets and the sounds of a foreign language that offered a heightened sensitivity to her visual and sensory observation. A weekly painting class with four other Greek women with the sounds of Greek music playing in the background, became the start of Sarah’s practice of oil painting.
It wasn’t for another 10 years until life opened up and the opportunity to learn about art from a depth and foundation she’d always longed for came through studying Visual Art at Federation University in Gippsland. Upon completion, Saridis received the LaTrobe Regional Gallery Emerging Artist Award and the NAVA Ignition Award and has since had solo exhibitions at Arc Yinnar Gallery and Meeniyan Art Gallery. In 2022, she was a finalist in the WWAS 9 x 5 Landscape prize in NSW and in 2024, her painting, ‘The walk through’, was selected for the John Leslie Art Prize exhibition at Gippsland Art Gallery.
Sarah works in landscape, figurative, and still life genres and is currently painting and discovering in the outdoors of Walkerville, South Gippsland. The rugged, coastal landscape differs from her beginnings in Greece, yet the same elements hold her fascination – light, pathways of colour, and the energy connected to working from life.
CV
EDUCATION
2018 Bachelor of Visual Art, Federation University, Churchill
1999 Diploma of Arts/Illustration, (NMIT), Preston
1997 Diploma of Arts/Design, RMIT TAFE, Melbourne
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Landscape paintings, Little Oberon Cafe, Fish Creek, VIC
2023 Fields and Foliage, Meeniyan Art Gallery, Meeniyan, VIC
2021 Landscape exhibition, Little Oberon Cafe, Fish Creek, VIC
2019 Fleeting Moments, Meeniyan Art Gallery, Meeniyan, VIC
2019 Connecting Threads, LRG Emerging Artist Award Exhibition, ARC Yinnar, Yinnar, VIC
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria
2023 Atticus Bookshop & Gallery, Foster, Victoria
2023 Fifty Squared, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2023 Lethbridge 20000 – Salon Des Refusés Online Exhibition, Lethbridge Gallery, QLD
2022 9 x 5 Landscape Prize, Waverley Woollahra Art School, Bondi, NSW
2018 Eighteen and Out, Graduate exhibition, Switchback Gallery, Federation University
2018 Eighteen and Over, Undergraduate Exhibition, Switchback Gallery, Federation University
2017 Benchmark17, Undergraduate Visual Arts, Post Office Gallery, Ballarat
2017 Gippsland Print Award Exhibition, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
2015 Ficifolia Art Show, Drouin
2005 Painting exhibition, Kalamata, Greece
2001 New Beginnings, 4 Cats Gallery, Abbotsford
2000 Illustra, Graduate Exhibition, Chapel off Chapel Gallery, Prahran
AWARDS
2024 Finalist, John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, VIC
2022 Finalist, 9 x 5 Landscape Prize, Waverley Woollahra Art School, Bondi, NSW
2018 Emerging Artist Award, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Federation University
2018 NAVA Ignition Award, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Federation University
2018 Certificate for Membership, Golden Key International Honour Society
2017 Award for Outstanding Achievement for Bachelor of Visual Arts, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Federation University
PUBLICATIONS
2023 Trio of exhibitions an Easter highlight in Meeniyan, South Gippsland Sentinel Times, April (view article).
2019 Sarah’s art chases the light, Heidi Kraak, LaTrobe Valley Express, July (view article)
2005 With painting we escape from everyday life, Group painting exhibition at the centre, Tharros News, Kalamata, Greece, May (view article)
MEMBERSHIPS
Regional Arts Victoria
Meeniyan Art Gallery, Victoria