Sarah Langstone who first studied Fine Art, Theatre design and Photography at West Kent College, Tonbridge and then Spatial Design at Kent Institute of Design, Rochester, left college in 1990 at the peak of the recession and took on a vast range of mediocre jobs ranging from bar work to selling concrete block paving.

Sarah married fellow KIAD student, modelmaker Paul Higgins in 1992 and pursued her writing ambitions with some success, while still keeping up with the occassional artistic commisssion. She produced design work for an oil company and various artworks for restaurants, ranging from murals to caricatures of the staff.

After becoming a parent in 1997, Sarah also managed to find time to design the covers and produce the internal illustrations for a few books (children's novels and a gay-themed short story book) for a UK publisher.

In 2005 in conjunction with her youngest child starting full-time school, Sarah finally realised that she does not have to 'choose' between being a writer and being an artist. She decided to go all out to do both and in 2006 she joined the New Art Centre, Chatham as one of their studio artists.

Portraiture and figurative work are her speciality but Sarah will follow a whim to wherever it takes her. "For me, the essence of painting a good portrait is not merely acheiving a likeness; it is creating an image that tells more about the sitter than a photograph. A good portrait steals a bit of soul from both sitter and artist, developing a presence of its own."