Twelve Facts About Sandra

18 May

Welcome to Sandra Gale Studio, home of artist, illustrator and creative explorer, Sandra Gale.

Thanks so much for stopping by to read the very first blog post for my new baby, Sandra Gale Studio. I’m Sandra Gale, South Australian artist and illustrator, and, yes, after 13 years working as an illustrator, I still get a happy buzz from being able to use that job title!

I love drawing and collage and I have recently discovered Procreate. I love to be tucked up on the sofa drawing on my iPad. I divide my time between working on Sandra Gale Studio and designing gorgeous greeting cards, stationery and gifts for inspirational brand Intrinsic.

When I am not in the studio, you might find me; drinking coffee (or wine) with my sister, in soccer mum mode cheering on my family from the sidelines (yes, family, they all play soccer, even my husband still plays) , or snuggled up in a cosy corner reading.

Twelve facts about me:

I was born in country South Australia and grew up on a farm with my Mum, Dad and sister, Roxanne. My grandparents were our closest neighbours and lived about a kilometre down the road. Rox and I would spend all our time making up games involving imaginary worlds, magic, superheroes and anthropomorphic animals. When we weren’t outside acting out our imaginary worlds, we were inside drawing them and further embellishing the stories, or lost in books reading and soaking up inspiration for our next games.
I was always enamoured by the romance of travel and, even though I loved my family, I was off adventuring as soon as I could. I have lived in Chile, Malaysia, Canada and England. My heart remained in South Australia where I now happily live, but I am always dreaming of my next adventure.
I live in a beautiful part of Adelaide with a lovely community, close to walking trails and wildlife. My favourite close encounter was an echidna peaking in at us through our back door, before scurrying off to hide behind our BBQ with it’s butt sticking out!
My sister lives super close and we have both structured our working weeks to keep Fridays free, so we can catch up for lunch, a cheeky glass of wine and lots of talking and laughing.
My favourite place to be is on holidays at Pt Vincent talking rubbish with my family and staring out to sea. My parents split their time between the farm (my childhood home) and Pt Vincent. I love both of those places and love visiting Mum and Dad whenever we can.
I am married to a very patient, supportive, soccer-loving man, who I love very much and who finds my various crazes slightly amusing, and hopefully a little bit charming. I have a daughter, step-son and daughter-in-law and I am grateful for the beautiful relationships I have with all three of them. My husband, daughter and step-son all play soccer, so I watch a lot of soccer!
I love cooking and experimenting with new recipes.
I love to watch plants grow and have an increasing collection of indoor plants, I think it comes from growing up on a farm and watching the crops grow. I love the idea of gardening but somehow our garden always finishes up slightly neglected.
I love reading and losing myself inside the pages of a book. I belong to two book clubs which is tricky to keep up with the reading, see the next point about optimism and time management!
I always have 1000 ideas floating around my head, waiting to explode into the world in a rainbow of colour. I am an eternal optimist, which creates some challenges around the number of ideas in my head and time available to execute the aforementioned ideas!!
I like setting myself goals, my optimism sometimes causes problems with the number of things I think I can achieve, but normally, I eventually achieve them. At the start of this year, I set my goals to practice art for me, re-learn Spanish, try new walking trails, start yoga practice, re-do our garden, tidy out our study and plan a trip to Chile. Some of these goals are in action, some will not be possible this year (international travel!), and some I have decided that I am actually not committed to at the moment (yoga). I am getting there with the others. It is all about progress not perfection. This website is a shining example of a goal in progress - and I am super proud of myself for creating this.
I love being creative and I believe everyone is creative, not just the artists of the world. I think we are all expressing our creativity everyday, but sometimes we just forget to notice. I’m hoping to help you notice those moments and find your sparkle of happiness when you are in your creative flow.