“Painting is a skin or membrane where we visualize and express the external world being internalized and the interior world being externalized.”
A Journey from Architecture to Painting
Sarah Nind is a Toronto-based visual artist whose creative path has been shaped by a diverse background spanning architecture, printmaking, and painting. Born in Brunei, she holds both UK and Canadian citizenship, enriching her artistic perspective with a global sensibility. Before fully immersing herself in the world of fine arts, she spent a decade working as an architect, an experience that continues to influence her approach to composition, structure, and spatial awareness in her paintings. Today, she serves as a professor in the drawing and painting department at an art and design university in Toronto, balancing her roles as both educator and practicing artist.
Her artistic journey was not one of discovery but of inevitability. Even as a child, Nind recognized that she was destined to be an artist. Growing up in a family with creative influences—writers, musicians, and visual artists—she was constantly surrounded by artistic expression. This deep-rooted connection to the arts led her to explore visual storytelling through a blend of abstraction and representation. Over the years, her work has been widely exhibited across Canada, the United States, Europe, and China, and is held in prominent collections, including the National Gallery of Canada.
Nind’s paintings transcend mere visual representation; they exist as a dynamic interplay between the past and present. She is particularly interested in the way memory and history shape contemporary perception. Her works often incorporate personal imagery alongside elements drawn from popular culture, reflecting the ways in which collective and individual experiences merge. By layering colors, forms, and textures, she constructs compositions that challenge viewers to consider the tension between external reality and internal experience.
Sarah Nind: The Skin of Painting
For Nind, painting is more than a surface—it’s a threshold between the physical world and the world of emotions, memory, and thought. She likens the painted surface to a “membrane” or “skin” where these dimensions interact. On one hand, the external world is internalized and processed through the artist’s vision; on the other, the internal world of emotion and recollection is externalized through color and form. This interplay between observation and abstraction is at the core of her artistic philosophy.
Color plays a crucial role in her work, functioning not just as a visual element but as a means of emotional and intellectual exploration. She sees color as being deeply connected to music and mathematics—both of which share an intrinsic relationship to rhythm, repetition, and pattern. By carefully manipulating color, she crafts paintings that engage the viewer on multiple levels, evoking both sensory and psychological responses. Her palette, often vibrant and expressive, enhances the dialogue between structure and spontaneity within her compositions.
Another defining feature of her work is the integration of personal imagery. Nind exclusively incorporates visual fragments that hold personal significance, embedding layers of meaning into each piece. These fragments—whether drawn from her own past or from broader cultural references—serve as points of connection between the individual and the collective. In doing so, she underscores the idea that artistic perception is shaped by accumulated experience, reinforcing the notion that once something is seen, it cannot be unlearned.
Space, Scale, and the Act of Painting
Nind’s relationship with her workspace is a reflection of her artistic process. Having lived in her studio for five years, she once found inspiration in being completely immersed in her work. However, as her practice evolved, she sought to separate her creative environment from her living space. Working primarily with oil paint, often on a large scale, she requires a dedicated studio where she can fully engage with her materials without restriction. This physical separation allows her the freedom to experiment, make a mess, and fully inhabit the act of painting.
Despite the potential for distractions in a shared studio environment or an urban setting, she has developed an ability to focus intensely on her work. She describes this focus as a kind of discipline that artists cultivate over time, enabling them to tune out external noise and maintain creative momentum. The physicality of painting, combined with her architectural background, has also shaped her preference for working at a human scale or larger. She envisions paintings that are immersive—pieces that the viewer can metaphorically step into, experiencing the artwork as an extension of their own space.
Recently, she has been working on small- and medium-scale pieces on board rather than canvas or linen, exploring new possibilities within these dimensions. However, she remains drawn to the idea of working on much larger paintings, with ambitions to create pieces that exceed two meters in any direction. This aspiration speaks to her ongoing fascination with spatial relationships, both within the painting itself and in relation to the viewer’s physical presence.
Sarah Nind: Influences, Process, and Creative Vision
Nind’s artistic influences stem not only from visual art but from the broader experiences of travel, cultural shifts, and environmental changes. She has spent significant periods living in Paris and Florence—first as an artist at the Cité Internationale des Arts in France and later as a coordinator for a university study-abroad program in Italy. These immersive experiences provided her with a fresh perspective on her own practice, not necessarily by introducing new imagery, but by allowing her to view her work with renewed clarity. The impact of location and atmosphere—whether in a bustling European city or the landscapes of Canada—continues to shape her creative approach.
Her artistic medium has also evolved over time. While she has always identified as a painter, she initially gained recognition as a printmaker, exhibiting internationally. However, concerns about the toxicity of traditional printmaking materials led her to transition away from the medium. She then began incorporating photographic elements into her paintings, creating a fusion of photo-based mixed media. More recently, she has moved toward a purely painterly approach, emphasizing the physical act of painting while still playing with layering techniques. She employs cut-out shapes and stencils to create tension between imagery and pattern, revealing hidden layers of color beneath the painted surface.
When asked about a specific piece that holds special significance, Nind resists pinpointing a singular work. Rather than focusing on individual artworks, she finds inspiration in the act of seeing—whether through exploring new cities, observing landscapes, or encountering handmade objects. Textiles, toys, and crafted artifacts captivate her as much as fine art, reinforcing her belief that creative expression extends beyond traditional definitions of artistic practice. This openness to diverse influences continues to inform her work, allowing her paintings to exist as fluid conversations between personal history, cultural memory, and the ever-evolving present.
