St. Ives Times & Echo – September 2024 ‘Imaginary Pathways’
“I have watched Stephanie Sandercock’s painting grow ever stronger, both visually and in scale over many years. Of importance is her signature style that combines her ‘self personality’ and visual techniques used to create them, which make them immediately recognisable.
Her abstraction is very different from that of the earlier St. Ives Modernist School. Her influences being more geological and organic.
There is an emphasis on high key ‘spiritual colours’, balanced with earth brown, greys, blacks and whites of nature’s palette. Her show is well hung giving her works space to breathe and demonstrates their strength and visual power.
Stephanie is yet another of the wave of younger women who together have become a dominant force in the St. Ives Art Colony in recent years. Her work manages to remain earthed while reaching for the spiritual realms.” – John Charles Clark
St. Ives Times & Echo – July 2022 ‘Alchemy’
“Her deep closeness to these rocks, particularly those along the shore at Gwithian, was such that she felt compelled to paint them, and so successfully it led her to being elected as a full member of the Penwith Society of Arts in St. Ives, earlier this year.
Her fourth solo show Alchemy, held in the Studio Gallery within the Penwith Gallery. One of the meanings of the title she has given her solo show is ‘a miraculous transformation’, and although she doesn’t change the base metals she uses in her work into actual gold, she comes close to doing so.
It’s safe to add that most viewers will be happy to accompany her on her journey. From Wild Ideas and Tiger Iron to Evening Clarity and Magnetic Field her three-dimensional, semi-sculptural compositions are as accomplished and appealing as they are impressive and highly individual. Well worth a visit.”
– Frank Ruhrmund.
My Cornwall Magazine Feature
St. Ives Times & Echo 2022 Reviews
St. Ives Times & Echo – December 2018 ‘Godolphin To The Sea’
“Many will remember her first, Gwithian Rocks, held there two years ago, acclaimed at the time as a promising debut, the works in her current show more than fulfil that promise, and should not be missed.
In every sense this is an impressive show. As appealing as it is accomplished.”
– Frank Ruhrmund.
Cornwall Today
She first threw open the doors of her studio at Townshend, near Hayle for Open Studios 2015. “I’d never exhibited my art before, so it was great to be a part of something that was happening already” says Stephanie, who is softly spoken with an accent that betrays her Lancashire upbringing. “It’s such a great idea – you don’t feel so alone, and yet you can still do your own thing in your own way. It gave me so much confidence, and I’m really looking forward to it this year.”
She works in colourful acrylics, building up layers before sanding and scratching to reveal patterns and textures. The area around Gwithian, with Godrevy lighthouse to the east and St Ives to the west, has become the most recent muse to her work and many of the paintings on display are inspired by her emotional relationship with the rocks and ever-changing colours of this stunning shoreline. “Just touching and feeling the rock gives me a sense of self”, she says with conviction.
Stephanie grew up in the Ribble Valley, just north of Preston, and spent much of her childhood “writing songs, painting and daydreaming”. She made the move south-west two years ago, ” I felt so at home in Cornwall, as soon as I stepped off the plane at Newquay.”
“As soon as I moved down here, things started to happen for me.” Mitch Adams of 3S Films filmed her painting, which can be seen on here, and she has been offered a month-long run in August at the prestigious Penwith Gallery in St Ives.
“When I came to Cornwall, my goal was to show my artwork on a wall in St.Ives and within 18 months it’s happened so I’m really happy”, says Stephanie.
“Coming here to Cornwall, I feel more grounded, more settled. I feel at home here – I don’t think I’ll ever leave.”