Art in the field

Sculptor Sarah Coward talks to Janet Menzies about forging real connections with clients through her art

- By Janet Menzies

ART LIVES in the space between the artist and the viewer. Many of us enjoy painting, modelling and writing for pleasure, yet the creative leap happens when the work is seen or touched or read by someone other than the person who made it. Sculptor Sarah Coward loves that moment of magic, and it is one of the reasons she is a regular exhibitor at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials. “It’s about wanting to sell directly to clients so that you meet the person who buys your work. When somebody comes to the stand and loves the piece it is a real thing; they see what you see,” she explains. “You get the ideas to do more, and that exchange with people takes your work forward. If it is simply showing in the gallery you don’t get that.”

Coward has taken this a step further by turning her stand into a popup studio where Burghley visitors can pass by and watch her in action. “It’s a good distraction,” she says. “Sometimes people glance round the stand and walk on, which makes me think they don’t like my work – even though it’s probably just because they want to go and watch the cross-country – so I engross myself in sculpting and don’t really notice whether people are moving on.”