Sally Maxwell

A native of Illinois, artist Sally Maxwell has been working with scratchboard for close to 40 years. Shown in galleries throughout the United States, her work is renowned by private and corporate collectors for its ability to capture the beauty and emotion of the wildlife and the natural world.

Since childhood, Sally has found inspiration in animals and her own colorful garden; each piece is like a snapshot of the intensity that nature can possess in its quiet moments. Sally’s work tells stories and suggests relationships through subtle details such as the way two creatures lock eyes or snuggle next to each other.

Sally has helped to define scratchboard as a fine art medium; using similar techniques to etching or engraving, scratchboard originally was used for magazine illustration and for products in catalogs. Working with scratchboard allows Sally to layer up rich, deep colors and capture minute details, and her innovation and experimentation with new tools has given her the ability to produce a softer, less linear technique.

Sally has created over 20 scratchboard kits for Ampersand Art Materials and authored 3 books on scratchboard technique, including “How To Draw Pets” and “How to Draw Zoo Animals”. In 2007, Sally was honored to have one of her pieces chosen as the label for Ampersand Art Materials’s Scratchbord product.

Sally works from her studio in the countryside of La Grange, Texas, where she lives with her husband, George. She takes frequent trips with friends and family, always with a digital camera to capture interesting flora and wildlife she finds on her adventures. Sally has won many awards and shows her work around the country at one-woman shows, major art festivals, the Dallas Safari Club and by appointment from her studio