Visually Appealing

Visually Appealing

Visual artist, art director, occasional ‘luncher’ … and a DJ, too … we present Sarah Larnach
While not deliberately, we say you’ve most likely admired Sarah Larnach’s work in your travels. She is most commonly associated with her best friend and collaborator, Pip Brown (aka Ladyhawke), but there’s so much more to this artist than making the ‘My Delirium’ singer look good while driving off a cliff.
After spending over a decade in Australia, the talented 32-year-old has returned to the place she calls home; right here in little old New Zealand!
When we spoke, Sarah was on the home straight of a 14-hour day working week completing the new album cover for her London-based friend’s Black White & Blue single.
“Our photoshoot for the painting was done with all the technical sophistication of the mac 'photobooth',  not dissimilar to the photoshoot for the Magic singles from her last album, which we did on photobooth and skype chat while on opposite sides of the globe. Pip is holding an old Agfa Click in this image, and this alludes to the theme of the music video for Black, White and Blue.
Living life as an artist in the public domain has never come as a struggle to Sarah thanks, in part, to her previous life as DJ Spandex – a title she now calls ‘cringe-worthy’.
“I was in the office of the nightclub when we realised we needed to put something up on the posters to advertise me and thought spandex was funny. Ten years on it’s no longer humorous.”
Mixing beats paid her way through a Diploma of Visual Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne. At least once a week, for over a decade Sarah played in nightclubs throughout Melbourne and Sydney; earning her friends that, in 2004 would grow to include the award-winning singer-songwriter, Ladyhawke.
“’DJing’ was never an aspect of myself I was hugely proud of,” she tells. “I wouldn’t flaunt my career in front of anybody. I’ve taken most of my business cues from my best friend. Seeing how she deals with being in the public eye and being a successful businessperson, I’ve followed her lead in that regard.”
Artists and musician’s have a long history of collaborating and trend setting. Think Storm Thorgerson and Pink Floyd, Warhol and the Velvet Underground, Peter Blake and The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s. And that’s just that era. Closer to home the collaboration between Sarah and Pip has launched her into international stardom; her most recognisable work, a Ford Thunderbird travelling down a water-coloured desert road in Ladyhawke’s 2008′s My Delirium video.
Sarah was flown to London for six weeks where she painted nearly all of the background scenes for the video, and the images of Ladyhawke and the car were created using a rotoscope layering technique.
“It was scary and exciting,” Sarah tells. “We’d been talking about doing the album cover for years then all of a sudden I had this artwork that was being reproduced by the tens of thousands, then I was asked to do the music video. I worked at Partizan Studios, which is owned by director, Michel Gondry (infamous for such music videos as Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones and Walkie Talkie Man by Steriogram and feature films The Green Hornet and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
“To go from just starting out to working in such an amazing studio, I felt out of my depth but truly blessed. I’m so proud of the end result and to be associated with it.”
Sarah now plans to take a few months off to travel to England for the launch of the new Ladyhawke album.
Sarah is consciously aware that she is her own brand, and consequently must maintain appearances in the industry she has earned notoriety in.
“I’m aware of what I’m representing when I go out and meet people socially. Without deliberately doing so I get work out of my social life.”
That social life includes the many avenues of social media that Sarah reserves 30-60 minutes a day for.
“It’s hard to wrap my head around all the different avenues that I need to be posting on, blogging, tweeting, etc., but it is so beneficial for the interest and feedback I get for my work. I put my email address up on my blog and I get emails from students from all around the world asking questions or telling me that they like my work. It also brings me sales. I easily get as many from people buying through links on my blog as I do through my gallery representation in Australia.”
“Sometimes it feels like I have two full-time jobs,” she continues. “It’s a good day when I get to go out for lunch. I’m so busy that I turn away more work than I take on – I’m quite picky. And it’s the same with collaborations with clothing companies.”
Sarah has aligned herself with Element; a skateboarding and surfing company that have an international team of artists.
Sarah was nominated for an Aria for Best Album Artwork in 2010. Although she didn’t win, to be nominated was a “huge honour”. Also in 2010, Sarah was one of two artists to have their work featured on over 20 million Becks beer bottles in an annual artist series in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Represented by internationalrescue.com
 
Tools I couldn’t live without:
- The Internet
- A computer with a big hard drive to scan my paintings in full resolution
- A good laptop because I work on the road a lot
- I always have a bunch of good pencils and paper
-  A portable scanner. All of my sketches I scan into Photoshop and I can make all of my changes, and experiment with colours without having to re-draw.