MUNTHE ART MONDAY: SARA WINFIELD

Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.

My name is Sara Winfield. I’m an abstract artist from Perth, Australia. My work explores the emotional undercurrent of womanhood, often through large-scale paintings that blend intuition, colour and lived experience. I’m drawn to abstraction as it allows space for people to feel rather than decode or interpret.

Sara is wearing Udello T-shirt.

Can you name some other female (artist) that inspires you and explain why they do so?

Patricia Piccinini, for the way she explores tenderness, motherhood and the uncanny in a way that is both unsettling and intimate. Del Kathryn Barton, for her unapologetic use of detail, colour and symbolism. I have followed her work for forever, and it has always felt like a fearless reclaiming of the feminine. And Daisy May Collingridge, whose textile sculptures push the boundaries of softness, absurdity, and bodily form in a way that’s deeply human and strangely comforting. The body remains such a powerful vessel for telling women’s stories and I can see myself making a return to it very soon.

Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?

It’s shaped everything, the themes, the energy, the way I express myself. Being a woman in the arts often means dividing yourself between nurturing a practice while also managing invisible labour, expectations, or caregiving. But it also means I draw from a deep well of lived experience. My work holds softness and strength at the same time, which I think speaks to a distinctly female way of existing in the world. I’m very much drawn to painting about the female experience as a mood, through colour and composition, but also through layering, the use of muddy tones and rebellious bright lashings of oil sticks.

Sara is wearing Uline skirt.

What would you like people to notice in your artwork?

Initially, it’s often colour and composition. My colour selections are the most instinctive part of my practice; I’ve always had a deep connection between colour and emotion. Even days of the week feel colour-coded to me. There’s so much beauty in everyday combinations, how colours interact, how they hold feeling and exploring that is one of the biggest pleasures in my work. What people often miss from digital imagery is how textured the work really is. I start with muddy washes and build layer upon layer, sometimes adding materials like sand or sawdust. The texture is part of the story, symbolic of how women build themselves, how we carry things, how we conceal and reveal.The outermost layers are usually the most colourful and complex, but the final layer is often quieter, more toned down; a more 'palatable' version, which I think many women can relate to. It’s about what we show, what we hide, and what lies underneath.

Sara is wearing Uline skirt.

What has been the most challenging aspect of being a woman in the arts?

Being expected to explain both the work and yourself; to be digestible, palatable, and easily defined. There’s pressure to brand yourself neatly, to soften the edges. I’ve had to work hard to protect my intuition and say no to opportunities that didn’t align, even when they looked good on paper. Becoming a mother also brought new questions. I found myself wondering if the art world really had room for women who procreate. I spent weeks in a kind of research spiral, reading about “art monsters,” trying to understand whether it was possible to be both an artist and a mother. As it turns out, becoming a parent expanded my practice in ways I never imagined. And eventually, I made peace with the most powerful truth: I can do whatever I like.

Sara is wearing Udello T-shirt.