Sarah Jane Szikora spent much of her childhood drawing. Surrounded by 11 brothers and sisters, she also made frequent trips abroad to her father's native Hungary, encountering for the first time the larger-than-life women who appear in her paintings today.
Although Sarah found much of her school life difficult and unpleasant, she did enjoy art lessons. Despite her teacher's discouragement, she left school to pursue an artistic career, attending Harrogate College from 1987-1989 where she studied Art and Design. Here, she discovered photography, sculpture and other core subjects, but was most fascinated by the life drawing classes, from which began her passion for portraying the human form.
From Harrogate, Sarah went on to study Illustration at Cleveland College of Art, again preferring life drawing to other disciplines. On leaving college in 1991 with only a handful of paintings to her name, she began a business making papier-mâché models that she sold from a shop in York. It was here that she first displayed the 'big women with attitude' she had started to develop at college - and, within weeks, every original had been snapped up and Sarah decided to concentrate on painting as her chosen career.
Since then, the response to Sarah's work has been huge. Indeed, during her first year in business, she decided to publish her work as greeting card designs, which her partner took responsibility for producing. Sarah eventually handed this job over to her first agent, who in turn introduced her to Washington Green and the Halcyon Gallery in 1995.
Her paintings have since been produced as numerous signed limited editions, which have captured the imagination of customers across the country, as well as celebrity admirers such as Gloria Hunniford who interviewed Sarah on her 'Open House' TV programme. Sarah's originals have also been displayed at various exhibitions over the last two years.
