Sabrin Miller

Sabrin is a figurative artist who uses an unusual reductive technique, working in oils to create engaging artworks featuring Scottish wildlife, and other much loved animals. The monochrome style of her work portrays a sense of calm, drawing you in and capturing a moment’s gaze with the subject. Sabrin works under the name Garrsab Studio from her garden studio.

Whilst Sabrin enjoyed art at school, it was in her early thirties that she re-engaged her creativity by attending a weekly life drawing class as a way to meet people. Although originally quite reluctant, Sabrin was encouraged to apply to college where she experimented with different media, and subsequently, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee studying Fine Art. Here she developed her love of sculpture and painting, and after graduating, she pursued painting, partly being more accessible from home, but also because Sabrin had discovered a new way of working which she wanted to further develop.

Aesthetic

Sabrin’s art is inspired by her love of animals, particularly greyhounds with her own dog being a regular subject. Past experience of volunteering with a local Riding for Disabled group and working in a horse and donkey sanctuary continually feeds her inspiration, and now the regular garden wildlife visitors inspire her creativity.

Sabrin consciously excludes any surroundings of the subject which focusses your eye, and through the varied tones of the use of a single colour, creates a dramatic yet calming effect. The image engages you as it emerges from the depths of the canvas with a slight nostalgic hint, and yet is full of character and personality.

Practice

During her studies in Dundee, Sabrin discovered the reductive technique which is now intrinsic to her process. Beginning by covering the canvas in a dark oil paint, it’s the removal of paint that allows the image to evolve, a technique very similar to sgraffito, where the top layer is scraped back to reveal colour below.

To achieve her own sgraffito style using oil paints, Sabrin’s tool box includes more unlikely items like cloths, cotton buds, cocktail sticks, pointed objects like the end of a paintbrush and her fingers. Shape, texture, highlights and movement are developed using different amounts of pressure and repetitive strokes. Although slow drying, once the oil paint becomes tacky it is no longer workable, meaning that Sabrin has to work reasonably fast to finish a piece. Then more time is necessary for the paint to be fully cured and dried before being ready to hang.

Sabrin also welcomes commissions.