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An Artist’s Journey with Sarah Macdonald
After completing a self-funded Master’s degree at UCL’s Slade School of Fine Art, Sarah was awarded a life-changing prize, funded by a gift left to UCL in a will, to help hone her artistic practice.
17 March 2025
Fifteen years after graduating from UCL, Sarah is currently on maternity leave from lecturing in art and design at the University of Greenwich, and can be found painting and drawing in her Tannery studio in southeast London whenever she has a spare moment.
“Following my Fine Art bachelor’s degree at Goldsmith's, I spent almost a decade working freelance for galleries and waitressing to pay studio rent. But by the time I was 30 I was hungry to re-enter education and relished the chance to step away from the studio.”
At this pivotal moment in her career, Sarah successfully applied to a Master's programme at UCL's Slade School of Fine Art.
“Studying at the Slade turned my whole approach upside down. I had the time to deconstruct what I was doing, to be inspired by many incredible tutors and peers, and to be pushed into a different stratosphere in terms of the criticality of my practice.
“However, funding my course while studying full-time was a struggle. I was usually coming into university only 3 or 4 days a week, because I needed the other days for freelance work while also babysitting in the evenings.
“At first it felt a bit demoralising at that stage in my life, but I came to recognise that studying art and being an artist is a real privilege. In today’s landscape it feels like a political act just to be able to make art.”
After the degree show exhibition, Sarah’s work saw her awarded the Clare Winsten Memorial Prize.
The award, which each year provides a female artist with a grant of £10,000, was established at the bequest of Clare Winsten (née Clara Birnberg), a Romanian-born artist who emigrated to London to flee pogroms in the early 1900s. Winsten herself had received a scholarship to study at the Slade and went on to earn international acclaim.
“When I received the letter, I sat on the kitchen floor and cried. I felt so proud that my tutors believed I was worthy of this support. I was called in for a meeting with the Head of School at the Slade and he said: ‘Don’t spend it on rent and tea bags – spend it on a project, do something significant and take risks.’ It was brilliant advice.
“I joined one of my peers as he travelled home to Los Angeles, and we went on this phenomenal drawing expedition across the west coast. I then went to Berlin for 3 months and continued my drawing practise. This gave me a massive body of drawings that I could come back to the studio with, and they helped me build a lifelong relationship between my drawing and painting practise.
“I did all of it on a shoestring, so I was even able to put a deposit down on a studio when I came back to London, with a group of friends from the Slade.
“It made me appreciate how incredibly generous legacy giving is. People are paying into a future that they will not see or be a direct part of. But I think that is a beautiful legacy to have, particularly now as it becomes harder and harder to work as an artist.”
“Both UCL and the prize were life changing. I was able to become part of this phenomenal network of artists, educators and friends. I even met my husband at the Slade. So much of the work I have done since has come from recommendations or referrals from that network, including my lecturing role at the University of Greenwich.
“Now being able to teach young artists, I want to cultivate and inspire students the way I was inspired. At the Slade I was always treated as an artist, as a professional. So, to now have the opportunity to share my knowledge and give that experience to others is really valuable to me.”