Mixed Media
Sarana Haeata
Sarana Haeata is a Maori-Australian artist who resides in Fremantle, West Australia. Her work explores the beauty and nuances held in shared stories, collective and individual identity, with a particular focus on the female experience.
Artist Profile
Sarana Haeata is a Maori-Australian artist who resides in Fremantle, West Australia. Her work explores the beauty and nuances held in shared stories, collective and individual identity, with a particular focus on the female experience.
Heavily influenced by the joy and challenge of motherhood, her work spans across painting, digital media, ceramics and public art and is often imbued with a sense of surrender and freedom.
From her seaside studio Sarana creates internal landscapes through gestural brush strokes, iconography and written word. Sarana sites her colour palettes as the most prominent emotional vehicle, using colour to instil calm or a sense of rich, enveloping wonder. Sarana’s works are visual acceptance letters, holding the viewer in a moment of belonging.
Artist Interview
What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?
I like to explore different mediums to broaden my tool belt for expression. I use acrylic, oil paint and pigment powders on canvas, linen and silk. I also use oil pastel, gold leaf and various dirts or sands to create texture. Ceramics is a more tactile way for me to express a feeling or thought while painting is more about solving a problem and creating an experience for me while painting it and in turn the viewer.
How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?
I usually don't sketch ideas out for paintings. Instead I'll have a period of creating paintings until I can start to see a thread of a theme, then I'll dissect and further think on that theme – where it came from and why it's important to me. I then continue to paint and select the works that most cohesively express that theme and leave the rest for later exploration.
Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?
I work in an industrial warehouse on a mezzanine level. I have large concrete walls and white floors that I don't have to be precious about. I need space to create because I tend to create in large volumes and larger sizes across painting and ceramics, so a warehouse space is perfect for me. I love it.
Career Highlights
- Large scale commission for Randi Zuckerburg's New York home
- Commissioned by the Boston Globe and Gardner Museum to recreate Rembrandt's 'A Lady And Gentleman In Black'
- Collected by Sarah Harden – CEO of Reese Witherspoon's production company Hello Sunshine
