--- title: Sarah Jayne Fell description: Contemporary painter exploring personal myth and universal transcendence through process art url: "https://www.artsume.com/a/sarah-jayne-fell" type: artist createdAt: 2026-03-16 updatedAt: 2026-04-15 disciplines: - Painting - Drawing location: "Cape Town, WC, South Africa" birthYear: 1986 --- # Sarah Jayne Fell *Contemporary painter exploring personal myth and universal transcendence through process art | Painting, Drawing | Based in Cape Town, WC, South Africa* ## Artist Statement My work explores personal myth through painting as a process-led, expressionist practice. It begins in a space between selves – a dialogue between the intuitive act of making and the reflective, editorial mind that shapes and resolves. Between the Two of Us is an ongoing series that speaks to the multiplicity of self in dialogue with relationship and intimacy. I am interested in dualities – conscious and unconscious, control and surrender, logic and feeling – not as oppositions to resolve but as forces held in tension. These internal dynamics often mirror our relationships, where connection and misunderstanding, projection and reflection unfold. In my art-making I particularly enjoy expressionism, finding inspiration in nature and organic processes, incorporating figurative elements that draw on archetype, psychology and emotion, with an underlying mythos connecting each work within its own creative universe. Painting instinctively and intuitively, I incorporate experimentation and exploration, tapping into a flow state that prioritises process over product, finding beauty in imperfection and allowing emergent forms to surface. As the work develops, a tension emerges between editor and artmaker, control and randomness, and I develop conceptual narratives through layered colour and mark-making – from palette knife and scratching to watery glazes, printing, stamping, ink drawing and detailed painting. This approach invites chance and requires trust, allowing unexpected forms to emerge. Colour and light act as guiding forces, carrying emotional and symbolic weight, while imagery draws from dreams, journaling, memory and subconscious associations. Each painting forms part of an evolving visual language – a personal yet shared mythology, reflecting on identity, connection and transformation in the space between self and other, where meaning emerges through process in a dialogue between expression and intention, to find joy in the mystery of the creative act. ## Biography Sarah Jayne Fell is a Kommetjie-based artist, writer, editor, designer, curator and multimedia specialist. Her painting practice explores personal myth through expressionism and process-led techniques, drawing on dreams, journaling and intuitive mark-making. Rooted in a lifelong engagement with art, her work reflects the interplay of colour and light, balancing control and spontaneity to create layered, emotive pieces grounded in the human experience. ## Curriculum Vitae ### Education - **2024** - Certificate, in A Star Process Art groups & mentorship, Amy Simons, Cape Town - **2023** - Certificate, in A Star Process Art groups & mentorship, Lindy Solomon (Astar founder), Cape Town - **2019** - Certificate, in Oil Painting & Figure Drawing, Bright Day with Ant de Klerk, Cape Town - **2015** - Certificate, in WordPress Essential Skills, Friends of Design, Cape Town - **2014** - Certificate, in Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship, Coursera, Maryland University, Maryland - **2013** - Certificate, in HTML & CSS Essential Skills, Friends of Design, Cape Town - **2013** - Certificate, in Finance for Non-financial Managers, CBM Training, Cape Town - **2012** - Certificate, in Oil Painting, Ruth Prowse, Cape Town - **2008** - BA Honours, in English Studies and Philosophy, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, (summa cum laude) - **2007** - BSocSci, in English, Philosophy, CCMS (Culture, Communications & Media Studies), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, (summa cum laude) - **2003** - IEB Matriculation, Durban Girls' College, Durban, (with distinction) ### Solo Exhibitions - **2025** - ""Between the Two Of Us"," The Sound Garden Kommetjie ### Group Exhibitions - **2025** - "First Thursday - with Michelle van Reenen and Ruth le Roux," Imhoff Farm Kommetjie - **2024** - "Got Junk Vol IV," The Fourth Cape Town (Curated by Rodan Kane Hart) - **2020** - "Home is Where the Art is," Zeitz MOCAA Cape Town - **2020** - "RISE exhibition V.2," ANON. Pop Up Art Show Cape Town - **2019** - "ANON. debut exhibition," ANON. Pop Up Art Show Cape Town - **2019** - "RISE pop up exhibition," ANON. Pop Up Art Show Cape Town - **2007** - KZNSA members' exhibition Durban - **2006** - KZNSA members' exhibition Durban ### Awards & Grants - **2024** - Anna Awards - painting shortlisted, Latitudes - **2023** - Sanlam Portrait Awards - Top 250, Sanlam Portrait Awards - **2006** - Joseph A.M. Naidoo Award for Excellence in English Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal - **2006** - 9 UKZN Merit Certificates: English, Philosophy, CCMS + Dean's Commendation, University of KwaZulu-Natal - **2005** - 4 UKZN Merit Certificates: Philosophy, CCMS + Dean's Commendation, University of KwaZulu-Natal - **2004** - UKZN rowing team: KZN Championships, RMB Universities Boat Race, University of KwaZulu-Natal - **2004** - Dean's Commendation, University of KwaZulu-Natal - **2003** - DGC Matric Art prize for Practical Art, Durban Girls' College - **2003** - Directed Inter-house Choir Singing; 2nd place in Interhouse Duets, Durban Girls' College - **2003** - 1st Flute in DGC orchestra; 2nd Flute in KZN Youth Wind Band, Durban Girls' College - **2002** - DGC Grade 11 Art prize, Durban Girls' College - **2001** - DGC First prize for Mathematics and Art, Durban Girls' College - **1998** - Junior Dux of Durban Girls' College, Durban Girls' College ### Bibliography - **2020** - Lauren Mitchell, "Using art activism to fight gender-based violence," *Design Indaba* - **2020** - Africa Melane, "What's on in Cape Town Today: ANON Pop Up Gallery," *Cape Talk: Weekend Breakfast with Africa Melane* - **2019** - "RISE: Artists unite against Gender-based Violence," *Art Africa* - **2019** - "ANON. Pop Up Art Show: A Dialogue on Gender," *Beautiful Bizarre magazine* ### Publications - **2025** - "Features for Kommetjie Life magazine," *Kommetjie Life* - **2021** - "Features for Lifestyling.co.za on art, design, wine and culture," *Lifestyling.co.za* ed. JP de la Chaumette, Mia Crewe-Brown - **2020** - "Story as psychological quest: an alternative to conspiracy theory ," *Mail & Guardian Thoughtleader* - **2014** - "Design articles & video interviews," *Design Indaba* - **2013** - "Faith47: Stories on the Cityscape ," *Sawubona, SAA in-flight magazine* - **2013** - "Emerging designs and trends that are going to rock 2014 - Cosmopolitan Tech Hunter," *Cosmopolitan* - **2011** - "Articles in one small seed magazine and video interviews for one small seed TV," *one small seed magazine* ed. Dylan Culhane, Giuseppe Russo ### Professional Experience - **2024 - Present** - Founder, publisher & editor, Kommetjielife.com (online publication), Cape Town - **2021 - Present** - Independent Artist, Self-run home studio, Kommetjie - **2020 - 2024** - Head of digital, Lifestyling.co.za (online publication), Cape Town - **2019 - 2021** - Founder and curator, ANON. Pop Up Art Show (art activist platform and pop-up gallery concept), Cape Town - **2017 - 2022** - Co-founder, marketing, social media, content creation, public relations, project management, Obs Pasta Kitchen (social project), Observatory - **2014 - Present** - Founder, director, digital strategist and project manager, One Day Company (content & communications consultancy), Cape Town - **2012 - 2017** - Head of Digital / Digital product manager, Interactive Africa (Design Indaba), Cape Town - **2011 - 2011** - Business development manager, content writer for e-learning, graphic designer, FXI Digital (Knowledge Foundry), Cape Town - **2008 - 2011** - Magazine editor, one small seed, Cape Town - **2007 - 2007** - English tutor and lecturer's assistant, University of KwaZulu-Natal, English Department, Durban ### Lectures & Presentations - **2020** - "Art Activism, Curation and Image-making for Social Change," Salonfestival Cape Town - **2020** - "Activism and Social Change in the Creative Industry (panel with Lerato Sengadi & Carin Bester, chaired by Carissa Cupido)," 10and5 Webinar 10and5 Johannesburg ### Commissions - **2025** - "Time Flows Like Water," Jonathan Steven Simons Kommetjie ### Gallery Representation - Latitudes, Johannesburg, (Current) ### Curatorial Projects - **2020** - "RISE exhibition V.2," ANON. Pop Up Art Show Cape Town - **2019** - "ANON. debut exhibition," ANON. Pop Up Art Show Cape Town - **2019** - "RISE pop up exhibition," ANON. Pop Up Art Show Cape Town ## Portfolio ### Self Portrait at 39 Years, 361 days (2026) *Acrylic on canvas* *35 x 24 inches* A figure emerges from deep violet and midnight blue —bodily, present, unmistakably alive —crowned not with a face but with an eruption of colour: a storm of red, yellow and white, blazing upward and outward like fire, like foliage, like thought itself uncontained. This painting has lived many lives. It began as a night vision —a boogeyman, a chaos figure summoned after a strange, sleepless night of anxiety and overthinking. While painting into her, she became a witch. Then a Black Madonna: the dark feminine, outcast, written out of history through the erasure of her image. And then, most recently, the face was painted over —and something was finally freed. Without a face, the figure becomes every woman at the threshold. The body carries its own knowing. --- ### Persistence of Memory (2026) *Acrylic on canvas* *12 x 12 inches* A semi-abstract portrait emerging from deep reds and shadow, the face half-surfaced — as one seen in a dream, familiar yet dissolved at the edges. Gold drips and pools around the figure like melting time, an echo of Dalí's famous clocks: memory not as fixed record but as something fluid, subject to the slow distortion of years. The basis of this portrait started in my mother's painting group in Durban, on a recent visit to my family home growing up, where my matric art still hangs on the walls. A face I initially read as Michelangelo-inspired – his figures populating some of my high-school art in homage —gradually revealed itself as someone else entirely: an early boyfriend from that time, who died not so long ago. I hadn't seen him in a decade. The gold, painted intuitively, settled into something like a lock or seal around the image —binding it like an old tome, preserved and held, while locking it away in memory for many years. --- ### Man in the Mirror (2025) *Acrylic on canvas* *1m x 26 inches* Beginning as a Rorschach printing experiment on unstretched canvas, inspired by a dream image of a man reaching into a mirror, and grabbing his own hand. Looking at the two sides of self, the ego and the shadow, conscious and unconscious, dream state and awake, the painting considers Cartesian dualism and Jung's theory of dreams and the shadow self. The two figures interact like a person catching their reflection in a mirror and at the same time doing a dance. The pattern itself appears both cat-like in its symmetry, and also alludes to the female reproductive system. --- ### Genius Loci (2024) *Acrylic on canvas* *1m x 700 mm* A painting inspired by a beautiful photograph by Ian G Miller of a heron in flight over the Kom, in Kommetjie, Cape Town, painted with free flowing water and acrylic. The heron also bears personal significance as a family emblem of my married name, Aherin, a bird which often visits our home in Kommetjie, and has metaphysical connotations as a guide. --- ### Dream (2024) *Acrylic on canvas* *1m x 28 inches* A semi-abstract portrait of a reclining woman asleep, her dream thoughts unfurling into landscape. Washy layers culminate in detail, alluding to the blurred boundary between our dream world and subconscious thought, and our waking lives. --- ### In Utero / In You Terra (2024) *Acrylic on canvas* *35 x 27.5 inches* This painting is based on the archetype of the twins or lovers, opposites that make up a whole, or the two sides of self or psyche. The two whisper to each other in sleep, an unfurling wave of energetic connection to each other and to all being. Twins, In Utero, or lovers, absorbed in "You" Terra, or the self, asleep, in dialogue with itself. A depiction of joy in oneness. Combining intuitive freestyle painting in a process art approach with washes and dripwork, followed by impressionist style detail that creates movement and story, the artwork is a semi-abstract, expressionist depiction of two lovers. Colour palette is bright and bold, including metallic copper, fluros and lemon yellow. The painting is on stretched canvas, ready to hang. --- ### In Union / In Grief (Diptych with In Grief) (2024) *Acrylic and ink on canvas* *24 x 30 inches* Emerging from layered washes of red and gold, this diptych - In Union and In Grief - speaks to connection and the coming together of two, in love, life, marriage and intimacy Developed intuitively through fluid mark-making and evolving forms, the figures in In Union surfaced with ease – reflecting intimacy, creation and the generative energy of the root. In Grief unfolded more slowly, initially holding a sense of transition and letting go. Revisited after loss, a second figure emerged from within the layers – revealing an embrace. The work speaks to shared grief, transformation and the quiet presence of connection within loss. --- ### In Grief (Diptych with In Union) (2024) *Acrylic and ink on canvas* *30 x 15 inches* Emerging from layered washes of red and gold, this diptych - In Union and In Grief - speaks to connection and the coming together of two, in love, life, marriage and intimacy Developed intuitively through fluid mark-making and evolving forms, the figures in In Union surfaced with ease – reflecting intimacy, creation and the generative energy of the root. In Grief unfolded more slowly, initially holding a sense of transition and letting go. Revisited after loss, a second figure emerged from within the layers – revealing an embrace. The work speaks to shared grief, transformation and the quiet presence of connection within loss. ## Links - **facebook:** https://www.facebook.com/sarahjaynefell - **instagram:** https://www.instagram.com/sarah_j_fell - **instagram:** https://instagram.com/st.anon.art