GingerbreadSarah Jane Szikora

Over the course of a successful 25 year career as a professional artist, Sarah Jane Szikora has established herself as one of the UK’s most loved naive painters.

Szikora was born in County Durham and grew up living in Harrogate, North Yorkshire & has mixed heritage: her mother being English and her father Hungarian. At college she would study illustration and on leaving in 1991 she became a ‘struggling’ artist making money where she could, selling papier-mâché models of giant giraffes and sheep!

Sarah then took the decision to display her college artwork in a shop in York and her first sale of a painting: ‘Big Girls With Attitude’ gave her the boost needed to concentrate on painting; in 1993 Sarah made the decision to become a professional artist.

Now synonymous with the creation of art featuring humorous gingerbread man, she was initially known for paintings & prints featuring overweight and comically large women who were partnered with equally ludicrous, ultra-skinny men!

Her tongue in cheek artistic humour meant some saw her as a natural successor to the artist Beryl Cook (1926-2008), with similar ‘saucy seaside postcard’ humour so synonymous with Great Britain. But it has been her limited edition prints & paintings of gingerbread man, that has defined her in the psyche of galleries and art collectors throughout England and beyond.

Sarah has produced art on a variety of different mediums that has included limited editions on paper, canvas board, box canvas, greeting cards and of course original art. Other mediums include: books, Royal Worcester china and calendars to name just a few - she is one of the few modern UK artists who have skilfully licensed their artworks over time.

In 1995 she was introduced to Washington Green and the Halcyon Gallery and for 10 years she released top selling limited edition prints in partnership with them. The first release was the limited edition print 'Sunblock' (1997) and the last was ‘The Biscuit Factory' (2007). Their partnership ending acrimoniously in 2007 and after a lengthy legal battle going all the way to the English High Court; once that ended, in January 2009 Sarah officially became ‘self-published’ and set up her own highly successful publishing company.

She spent many years working from the ‘Biscuit Factory’ building in Newcastle, a community of artists workspace with a gallery and more recently she has moved to Whitley Bay, North Tyneside to her own dedicated ‘Jam Gallery.’ Sarah draws much inspiration from the Seaside town, and like Beryl Cook, doubtless garners ideas from the quirky people she encounters or passes by in the day,

Since 2009 Sarah release limited edition prints a few times a year and has even spoiled us with new sculptures and a hilarious book called ‘A Half Baked History Of Gingerbread.’ Sarah is also a cat lover (& has many) and also a supporter of the British dementia charities.