Sarah Afskoven is a Canadian fine artist, currently based in Squamish, BC on the territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh nation.
Spending her earliest years in Steveston, a stormy seaside corner of Vancouver, and frequently relocating throughout the Vancouver region through her youth - always looking northward toward the North Shore mountains - Sarah recognized the calls of the paintbrush and the wilderness at a young age. Despite best efforts to do otherwise professionally with a post-secondary education in criminology and a successful career in the fine culinary arts, Sarah was unable to avoid the paintbrush and has long since relinquished herself to a life of paint-caked cuticles.
Sarah is widely inspired by her day-to-day life, but she draws the deepest inspiration from those sharp moments of poignance we all feel, where our breath might catch and our bodies pause movement. For her personally, these can hit anywhere from scenic alpine vistas to night-lit urban streets to a moment in the right light with the right person. The potential sharpness of the human experience, whether good or bad, is very influential to her art.
Now in her thirties, she has worked professionally as a fine artist in a part- and later full-time capacity for over a decade. In that time, she has lived in Vancouver, Banff, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa, and has explored the remote lands and smaller cities and towns of Canada extensively by hiking and campervan. Travelling nationally and internationally frequently, she photographs the landscapes she comes across personally, and only works from her own photos as artwork reference (excepting some privately commissioned artworks).
In her free time, she spends much of her energy outdoors, training for and participating in trail ultramarathons, cross-country skiing, hiking and camping, taking photographs, writing, and continually searching for the best cocktail she's ever had.