Sara Lee Roberts is a local artist who organises her own exhibitions under Vivienne Roberts Projects. Her latest exhibition is called Echoes and Reflections and is on display at The Bindery, Hatton Garden. Sara spent last summer as Artist in Residence at Giverny, Monet’s house and garden which inspired so much of his best known work, a key highlight for her career as an artist.
What originally drew you into art as a career?
I don’t think of art as being a career, even though I do earn my living from selling paintings and teaching at the Royal Drawing School. I think of it as being a choice about how to live and respond to the world. My father was a painter. I have painted since I was 7 years old. I do not feel normal unless I am making art. I have had a career as a picture restorer and was also a scientist when I was younger.
Tell us a little bit about what inspires your art?
Other people’s art inspires me – both old art and contemporary art. I am also inspired by poetry and by Nature.
You were recently artist in residence at Monet’s Giverny Gardens. How did that come about and how did it change your approach to your own work?
The residency opportunity came through The Royal Drawing School. It was competitive – I submitted 10 images and was called for an interview. The residency was for three months.
Being at Giverny gave me more uninterrupted time to work than I have ever had before. It also gave me solitude. I was able to make a huge amount of work. The vibrant colours in the garden changed my relationship to colour, the reflections in the waterlily pond gave me a subject that I will go back to for many years.
What are the other highlights you’ve had in your artistic career?
In 2025 I was artist in residence at the Kings Gallery in London. I was asked to make drawings in response to an incredible exhibition of renaissance drawings. My drawings were then on display in the gallery. A highlight was meeting the King one evening when he came to see the exhibition privately. He was knowledgeable and very interested as he is also an artist. I had made increasingly abstract responses to a particular tiny drawing by Leonardo of a storm over a valley.
What do you enjoy the most about being an artist?
I enjoy being challenged, I enjoy being alone but there is a lot of time when it is painful and I am full of doubt.
What challenges do you face about being an artist?
The challenge is to keep working in spite of doubt. It is also expensive – the paints, brushes, canvases and the studio rent all cost a lot.
Where have the paintings you have sold ended up in the world?
As far as I know, my paintings are in Canada, France, the UK, the Middle East. Some are in public collections in the UK.
What are your future plans for developing your work?
My plan is to make more work. To push more into colour interaction, gesture and the poetic. To keep working on both small and large pieces. The short-term future includes making 10 commissioned paintings for the owner of an estate where Evelyn Waugh used to go to write and whose gardens provided him with inspiration for those at Brideshead.
The Bindery, 53 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8HN.
© Adam Reeves, 2026, all rights reserved.