Artist Sally Barlow has always been drawn to birds because, to her, they represent freedom. It was this natural love of birds that inspired her first animal artworks . . . inspired by the stunning peacock, the quirkiness of owls, the majestic soaring of and the beauty of a sparrow. She never set out to be an animal artist, but she creates what moves her, which continues to be the splendid characteristics of animals. Sally creates her art using mixed media, and that’s the best way to describe her artwork. Her style is a combination of hand illustration, graphic art, photography and painting. She combines all these digitally in Photoshop. She creates artwork with intricacy and depth, sometimes beginning with a pen and ink illustration and at some other times a photograph or painting layer by layer.
Sally has always had a deep love for pets, more so the cats. She collected cat figurines and wallpapered her room in cat posters when she was a child. There have also been a few dogs that have stolen her heart over the years. Since she was a young child, art has always been an outlet, a passion, and an expression for her. She has been a graphic designer for close to 20 years, and about three years ago she ventured into the art world on a whole new level, combining her passion with her “profession.” She uses a technique that she refers to as “digital oil painting” where the final product, though “painted” digitally, looks like an oil painting.
