Sarah Graham’s exhibition at Galerie Maximillian is an ode to the Magnolia

Artist Sarah Graham’s fondest childhood memories originate from her family’s rural farmhouse in Tarn-et-Garonne in the Occitania region of Southern France. It’s where she discovered her artistic talent and where she draws much of her creative inspiration.

“Growing up outdoors left me with a vast appreciation of nature,” Graham said. “The importance of wildlife, fields of sunflowers, ditches of artichokes, and those strong forms have resonated. And the best forms recently, of the magnolias that are all over France at this time of year, great big, wondrous white cups with those strong, green, shiny leaves and beetles.”

Graham’s recent work, which focuses on the form of the magnolia, will open at Gallerie Maxmillian on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. running through Sunday, Aug. 18.

“It’ll be my second show with magnolias, which I find the ultimate plant to draw, the ultimate flower. There is something so extraordinary about them,” she said.

It’s her seventh time showing at the gallery and her first time back in Aspen in five years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sarah is one of our most sought-after artists,” said Albert Sanford, owner of Gallerie Maximillian. “She does very little work, 12 to 18 pieces every year to year and a half, which greatly exceeds demand. Collectors respect the beauty, scale, and authenticity of the works. We are extraordinarily proud to host Sarah and her family back in Aspen and present her most recent work.”

Graham is a hands-on artist who is involved in every aspect of her artwork from collecting natural specimens and preliminary drawings to sourcing rare art materials (ink, brushes, paints, and paper), and final execution.

“What’s important, which I think has got so lost today, what I’m trying to do, is to be self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency has carried me through to being an artist today, which is swimming against the tide and going against what other people are doing. Like a fish swimming upstream.” Graham said.

Self-sufficiency was a skill she picked up at her French country home. She spent summer holidays there with her parents with no TV and no telephone for two months at a time while The House of Lords (which her father belonged to) was in recess and had no real friends outside of the family and the natural world surrounding her.

To keep herself busy she often created art projects around the house, a place that remains special and where she still spends a lot of time with her children.

“That was the birthplace of where it all began,” she said. “When I was 17 I drew a William Morris peacock, a sunflower, and very abstract stuff on the walls of the kitchen and bathroom of the house when my father was having a siesta one day. He woke up to find I redecorated the bathroom and the kitchen, and they are still here.”

Like most artists, Graham did not travel a straight line to where she is today. After spending five years at The University of Edinburgh she turned away from painting and traveled extensively for many years; in Australia, Turkey, and the Far East, culminating in a journey on horseback across Central Asia in 2001. Discovery acquired the film she made about her experience.

After spending some time in the United States working for an antique dealer, she found her way back to art.

“My boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband, an art dealer named James Colin Tibbett, gave me a sketchbook,” she said. “I had a moment of starting to draw again in the Pyrenees mountains, and I just got this sort of lightning bolt of recognition crossed with, ‘How could I have neglected this?’ And it started again from there.”

Today she lives and has a studio in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, but finds her inspiration back at her childhood home in France during holidays.

“I think you need London for stimulus, shows, exhibitions, ink supplies, and paper manufacturers, but it’s impossible to think there,” she said. “Whereas when I’m in France, I can develop ideas in peace. I can embroider ideas in my head and grow with them. And I’m surrounded by nature, beautiful leaves, plants, wilderness, and, above all this amazing life and just really simple living.”

Aspen’s natural surroundings are one of the reasons she loves returning and continuing to show her work here.

“There is so much to be inspired by in Aspen,” she said. “And the light. That light for an artist is just the ultimate turn-on.”