Sarah G. Lee

Sarah G Lee was born in 1958 in Connecticut, though she’d say her creative soul was born on Deer Isle in Maine during her early childhood. 

Sarah’s foundation in design and appreciation for texture-in-space was built by her natural surroundings and exposure to design ideas from an early age. Sarah was raised among architects and builders, and by a mother whose design sense was pitch perfect. The scale and complexity of Maine's rugged landscape, and the way the trees and rocks were intertwined with the area's architecture and design, influenced her aesthetic and the central role of nature in her life and work.

As a child, Sarah created her own spaces with an abundance of enthusiasm and a knack for design. In the woods, she worked “room” by “room”, floor-planning in a maze of large granite castoffs and fallen branches, imagining the tall spruce and pines protecting her from the elements. This early passion—for design, for texture, for space and color—has only expanded and is what now animates in her paintings and makes them so engaging. Her paintings are built very much like those childhood environments from the elements of the vibrant world around her and her imaginative powers.

Sarah majored in the visual arts in college and continued to study art, in many forms, after graduation and throughout her life. Her work today grows out of her ever greater technical abilities across mediums, and her willingness to experiment.

Her work is gestural, abstract and multi-layered. Having worked professionally in interior design, she draws inspiration for texture from her knowledge of, and interest in, textiles. Her abstract work is grounded in realism, making its sources a point of connection for the viewer. The paintings are an emotional response to a certain place or time that she wants to bring the viewer to; she hopes they come along to find beauty and inspiration.

New to Tenants Harbor, Sarah is at home nestled among the spruce, just a glance and a whiff from the ocean.