Homecoming

New Paintings by Sally Stafford

The wetlands of the Somerset Levels have harboured wildlife and people for millennia. They resonate with myths, bird calls and the prevailing South West wind.

It is this exposed yet sheltering place that Sally chooses to embrace and paint, after some years dividing her time between the UK and rural Spain. Returning to England to experience every season has been an inspiring creative homecoming, where the interaction of her paints on canvas mimic the flow and patterns of nature.

A perfect example of this is the murmuration, where many thousands of starlings gather in mesmerising flocks as winter dusk approaches and fly as one fluid, undulating mass before dropping into the reed beds as if at some secret signal. Sally’s latest work harnesses the energy of this quietly dramatic phenomenon, which is itself a daily homecoming – a return to safe haven before the sun rises again.

This deeply personal, life affirming new collection encapsulates the true essence of the Avalon Marshes, where water and air interact like a form of alchemy to create something precious: a timeless sense of place.