Sarah Dolby was born in Wanaka in 1971 and brought up in Dunedin. She holds a Fine Arts degree from Otago Polytech, and worked as art director for a leading animation company for 12 years in 3D animation. In this role Dolby was the first artist to compliment a team of computer scientists. Dolby currently lives on the Otago coast where she paints full-time.

Dolby's work has always been character driven and combines traditional portraiture with narrative. The haunting, romantic women of her Gothic paintings are often famous literary figures including Ophelia and Mary Shelley, or more recently, fairy tale archetypes such as the Fairy Godmother or the Damsel-in-Distress.

Dolby's characters are immediately dazzling in their power and beauty, but on closer inspection reveal hands rubbed raw, flushed complexions and above all else, unnerving expressions. Set against stark, yet luminous backgrounds, the focus of each work is firmly on the character, and the depth and complexity of emotions barely contained behind their gaze.

Dolby works patiently, building up the graceful lines of thin necks and arms, the folds of garments and the subtle pallor of skin in layers of fine detail. For Dolby, giving time to the paintings allows their emotive qualities to slowly emerge in the midst of their atmospheric palettes, creating works that are as personal and as resonant as diary entries.

December 2015 through January 2016, Dolby will exhibit in a group show, Between Worlds, at Corey Helford Gallery, L.A.

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