About Sam Toft

Sam was born in June of 1964, and is a native of the UK, having lived in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Le Vaudreuil Ville Nouvelle, Essex, Surrey, Liverpool, Balham, Tooting, Ealing, Middlesex, and currently—but for how long remains a mystery—in Brighton and Hove.

    In her fifty odd years Sam has been a fire extinguisher salesman, a silver service waitress, a death grants advisor, a Wedgwood Rooms worker, a catering manager, a civil servant, a student, an au pair, and an unemployed person. Somehow, in all of this, Sam, without much formal training, became an artist.

    She is a mixed media artist and works in oil pastels, coloured inks, scraffito, and with the innovative finger and thumb technique. She says, “I am lucky that the accident of my birth left me at the edge of things—ever watchful, observant, and compelled to link scenes and memories into some kind of narrative. Stripes, textures, delicious whiffs, children’s rhymes, eccentric characters, lovely hats, nostalgic tunes, and beautiful dogs are all things that catch my attention and fuel my imagination. I am grateful to these favourite things that make my creativity possible, along with my hands, my eyes, and especially my mum.”

    Sam has created a rather spectacular group of characters: Mr.Mustard, a professional tuneless hummer and his wife, their dogs and a variety of other village animals to frequent her paintings, a reminder of the free and whimsical, the young and the old, happiness, kindness, and soul.