Sarah Margaret Gibson, b 1988, is from Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a contemporary realist artist, specializing in portraits of people and of birds, as well as still-lifes. Characterized by a rich tenebrism, Gibson’s work dramatically juxtaposes light against shadow. She believes that light, and all of its symbolic qualities, are most poetic when contrasted against dark. Building up her paintings from a series of fine layers – contrasting heavy impastos against thin, delicate passages – she seeks to give her works a palpable depth and complexity. She aims to capture the personality and the life-force of her subjects, and to give the viewer such a riot of details and varying textures that they can find something new to contemplate upon each viewing.

Gibson received her formal training in drawing and painting in Florence, Italy. She studied at the Angel Academy of Art from 2008-2010, and then completed the full three-year program at The Florence Academy of Art, from which she graduated in 2015. She taught at the Florence Academy’s intermediate studio from 2012-2015. Over the course of her seven years in Florence, Gibson was profoundly influenced by the work and philosophy of the Old Masters and by the mentorship of great living artists such as Daniel Graves, founder of the Florence Academy.

In 2015 Sarah Margaret moved to the west coast of Scotland, alongside her husband and fellow artist, Lee Craigmile. Together they co-founded the Glasgow Academy of Fine Art in 2019, where Gibson is acting as Academic Director. The Academy is an atelier-style school, teaching traditional methods of representational drawing and painting.

Gibson’s work is shown throughout the US and Europe and can be found in the New Britain Museum of American Art and in numerous private collections.