Helensburgh artist Sarah Rowan has unveiled a set of new murals on water tanks at Rex Jackson Oval, honouring the town's sporting teams and inspiring community spirit through art and sport.
“Like any good Australian small town, Helensburgh is really into their sport,” Rowan says.
“I was working on the tanks one day, and the rugby team won their game on the oval next to me. It was awesome and terrifying. I was surrounded by the sounds of screaming while I was painting. You couldn’t even get a park that day because everyone was really into coming to cheer on the team and it was so great to see the support of the community.”
The mural features the athletes and logos of beloved sports teams such as the Helensburgh Tigers and the Thistles soccer club. Across the numerous tanks, townsfolk can enjoy representations of runners, swimmers, netballers, cricketers, little athletics, mountain biking and skate park regulars.
Rowan is the artist behind the much-loved mural of Helensburgh's Olympic gold medallist Saya Sakakibara at the pet food store on the corner of Walker and Short streets. This years’ City of Wollongong awards recognised Rowan's achievements in arts and culture with the 2025 Lord Mayor Award for Excellence. She is a finalist in this year’s Local Business Awards, and has been a finalist for the past five years.
“One of my favourite things about being an artist now is that ever since the Saya mural, I’ve got this connection to community that I've never had before,” Rowan says. ''I've been here [in Helensburgh] for 20 years, and Helensburgh has become such a family to me.
"I can feel their love and it means a lot, I’m really grateful to Helensburgh and their support.''
When Rowan graduated with a bachelor of fine arts from Converse University in the US in 2003, she was unsure how to make a living as an artist. She pitched the idea of live speed painting to a venue owner and became Australia’s first public keynote speaker/speed painter.
“I went to a venue, and I said ‘hey, can I paint live when a band is playing?’, and they're like ‘we've never heard of that.’ I said, ‘I haven't either.’ It's 2004. It's before YouTube was really going. I had no idea what was out there in the world,'' Rowan says.
''There was no Instagram. The next thing I know, I'm on stage with 4000 people coming to hear a band play. And I was scared, but there was this buzz, this electric buzz of going ‘this is incredible'.
“But I couldn’t count how many people came up to me afterwards and said ‘oh, I loved your painting, but my God, those two, three minutes you spoke were stunning, and the most interesting part of the whole night.”
Sarah this year achieved her biggest professional goal and became a certified speaking professional.
“To achieve it by June was huge. To be recognised by my peers in the speaking world means a whole lot,” she says.
“Now when I speak, it’s so cool because people ask: ‘Do you have a podcast? Do you have a book? How do I get more?'”
Rowan has spoken at almost 600 events to audiences such as tech companies and accountants, sharing her tips on how to harness creativity. Now audiences can learn more about Rowan’s creative philosophy in her new book, The Creativity Cycle.
“My whole thing is about well-being and connecting with yourself, and how when you connect with the fact that you are a creative being, your life is fuller and richer.
“I wanted something in people’s hands to be able to propel them further. It’s one thing to speak and share and inspire someone to get creative.
“When you get present and you go, ‘I am a creative being’, it's like a dopamine rush that no amount of personal accolades and success can compare to. Whenever someone tells me, 'I don't have a creative bone in my body', I call bullshit. You have 300 million brain cells. It's not that you're not creative. You have creativity – it's just sleeping."
Rowan dedicates a lot of her time to fundraisers focusing on environmental issues, children, education for women and human trafficking. In her career, she has worked with Google, Adobe, the Brisbane Broncos and Lions, and the Bank of Queensland. She has painted live portraits of figures such as basketballer Scotty Pippen at events and aims to raise a million dollars for charity. But with dozens of notable achievements, Rowan says she is most proud of her journey to love herself.
“It took me a long time to get to the point where I can look in the mirror and I get sassy… I'm like, I freaking love you. You're hilarious. You're having a great week, aren't you? I didn't have that for 20 years. I hated who I was and I rejected myself,” she says.
“When I can love myself, I can love others. If I can connect to myself, I can connect to others. I think a lot of times in this world, you can become so disconnected from yourself and other people, and you're completely missing the point.
"Rent and food costs will keep going up… You can choose to let it stress you out, or you can choose to just love yourself and enjoy the journey because that is the destination.”
