To celebrate the launch of her new book, Sarah Graham’s forthcoming exhibition at Lyndsey Ingram will present a series of drawings conceived during her immersive three-month stay in the Kenyan wilderness and seen in the gallery for the first time. Graham’s London studio will also be partially recreated within the gallery space, showcasing her key sources of inspiration, including skulls, rounded stones, fossils and shells, papier-mâché plant forms, and scientific measuring instruments.
In 2025, Graham based herself in Sirocco, near Lake Naivasha and the Samburu National Reserve, northern Kenya. Initially equipped with only the materials she had brought with her, Graham established a makeshift studio where she discovered new forms of self-expression and artistic creation. Alongside the triffid-like forms of the Musa acuminata (banana plant) and the curved forms of the Ficus sycomorus, Graham was also captivated by the immense elephant skulls she encountered there. In observing these anatomical forms, Graham found them “to embody the timeless rhythms of life, death, and survival that have shaped this land since long before recorded history”. Reflecting further on the experience of drawing the skulls, Graham observed that “the curves, contours and proud lines gave me a profound sense of stillness and connection. As my charcoal followed the architecture of the bone, I felt linked not only to these primitive beasts, but also to something deeper within myself”.
Working en plein air and using basic charcoals and natural inks, Graham developed a more responsive and visceral relationship with the elements around her. By working on large swathes of paper and canvas stretched flat across the ground, she cultivated a deeper connection to the land, which, she explained, enabled her to become “acutely aware of our shared origins and our place within the natural world”. Graham pooled her inks, allowing them to spread unpredictably, and later worked over them with charcoal and graphite, resulting in images that hover between representation and abstraction. The strong curved forms of the Ficus sycomorus, Musa acuminata (banana plant), and the skull of the elephant (Boadicea) captivated the artist and provided her with a profound sense of place, or ‘genius loci’.
In 2025, Graham based herself in Sirocco, near Lake Naivasha and the Samburu National Reserve, northern Kenya. Initially equipped with only the materials she had brought with her, Graham established a makeshift studio where she discovered new forms of self-expression and artistic creation. Alongside the triffid-like forms of the Musa acuminata (banana plant) and the curved forms of the Ficus sycomorus, Graham was also captivated by the immense elephant skulls she encountered there. In observing these anatomical forms, Graham found them “to embody the timeless rhythms of life, death, and survival that have shaped this land since long before recorded history”. Reflecting further on the experience of drawing the skulls, Graham observed that “the curves, contours and proud lines gave me a profound sense of stillness and connection. As my charcoal followed the architecture of the bone, I felt linked not only to these primitive beasts, but also to something deeper within myself”.
Working en plein air and using basic charcoals and natural inks, Graham developed a more responsive and visceral relationship with the elements around her. By working on large swathes of paper and canvas stretched flat across the ground, she cultivated a deeper connection to the land, which, she explained, enabled her to become “acutely aware of our shared origins and our place within the natural world”. Graham pooled her inks, allowing them to spread unpredictably, and later worked over them with charcoal and graphite, resulting in images that hover between representation and abstraction. The strong curved forms of the Ficus sycomorus, Musa acuminata (banana plant), and the skull of the elephant (Boadicea) captivated the artist and provided her with a profound sense of place, or ‘genius loci’.
