Where The Ocean Feels Like Home Sarah Philips' Lifelong Love of Painting the Sea

Sarah Philips with her completed pieces ready to throw her first ever official solo exhibition at the Mission Beach Community Arts Centre in April 2025. Photo supplied

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By Chelsea Ravizza

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Award-winning artist Sarah Philips has spent more than half her life capturing the beauty of the ocean. For her, seaside represents endless memories, extending from her childhood spent on the water to finding solace during life's most challenging moments. Her latest body of work reflects a lifelong connection to the coast and the quiet sense of peace it continues to provide.

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Though based in Brisbane, Sarah found an unexpected sense of home on the Cassowary Coast, where she drew inspiration from the region's coastline, vibrant landscapes and familiar coastal scenery to transform her lifelong connection to the ocean into striking works exploring memory, connection and healing.

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“Mission Beach definitely influenced my art,” Sarah said.

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“It has so much in common with my home, Bundaberg, from the casuarina trees to the pipi shells, it allowed me to feel connected to home, even though we were geographically isolated from our friends and family.”

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Whilst temporarily relocating to Cairns with her husband, the self-taught painter happened across the Mission Beach Community Arts Centre, where she would later feature her very first official solo exhibition titled The Push, The Pull in 2025.

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“When I threw my first solo show at the Mission Beach Community Arts Centre it felt like everything I had learnt and worked toward finally had a tangible outlet, and the collection I exhibited was something I was truly proud of.”

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Having drawn for as long as she can remember and painted for more than half her life, Sarah primarily works with acrylics, watercolours and gouache, while occasionally dabbling in oils and charcoal. When creating a piece, Sarah describes her process as organic and intuitive.

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“I sometimes improvise details or whole sections from memory or impulse, and I don’t usually make up my mind about what I think a piece might be about until after it’s finished,” she said.

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With a multigenerational connection to the water through her father and grandfather's love of fishing, Sarah has channelled her lifelong relationship with the ocean into her artwork.

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“The ocean isn’t just a connection to home, and a physical place, but also to family - it’s shaped me more than I can say and there’s an indescribable glee and contentedness interwoven with the ocean for me,” Sarah said.  

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“On the other side of the same coin, my family has struggled with mental health, and I was very much taught that the ocean was something that could be relied on – as a source of beauty and curiosity in what can sometimes be a very bleak and harsh world.”

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"It always brings me the most joy when someone says that my work brought them a little peace, or grace. There's little enough of that in the world, feeling like I'm tipping that scale in the right direction means everything."