British Artist Inspired by American Photorealist

Fans of enterprising artist Sarah Graham will be interested to know that her style owes a lot to the photorealist painter Chuck Close.

American painter and photographer Close rose to prominence during the late 1960s and early 1970s through his massive-scale portraits and has arguably had a significant influence on the career of Sarah Graham.

Close's system of working from photographic stills to create paintings that appear to be photographs has been termed as super-realism or hyper-realism and the same can be said about Sarah Graham's artwork.

The artist was left severely paralyzed after suffering a spinal artery collapse in 1988 but he has continued to paint despite being confined to a wheelchair since the accident.

Close has been called one of the most successful portrait artists of his time and has continued to influence every generation of photorealist painters.

Sarah Graham began to paint very detailed colour portraits of fellow students at De Montfort University from photographic source material and she has continued with this method throughout her career since graduating in 2000.

She said: "I start by taking a staged photograph in my studio. Although I enjoy photography, painting is my first love, and I may take as many as 200 photos of a subject before I'm happy with one."

Many Sarah Graham prints include vibrant depictions of childhood toys including metal robots, Barbie dolls and miniature trucks.

"I am entirely motivated by colour, and as a realist painter, along with being a big kid at heart, this inevitably lead to the subject matter of toys," she added.

The artist revealed on the social networking site Facebook that she will be releasing new paintings in the near future and this news is likely to excite art enthusiasts as her work is becoming increasingly collectable.

Her status read: "I will have new releases coming out very soon, they don't include any robots, but I'm very excited about them. Details will be coming soon."

Sarah Graham has branched out by undertaking stencilling after being inspired by graffiti style artwork and has enjoyed taking urban art and transforming it by using traditional painting methods inside the studio.

The artist has taken her art on the road this year with exhibitions in London, Nottingham and Birmingham.

Sarah Graham is also well known for her limited edition collaborations with famed British handbag designer Helen Rochfort.