Sara Parrilli is an artist and Waldorf educator residing Columbia County, NY. She currently teaches painting and drawing to grades 5-12 at the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf school in Ghent, NY.
Sara’s background in handcrafts and visual arts began with her Waldorf school education where knitting is taught from the first grade onward and illustration is an integral a part of many classes. She holds a BA in Fashion Design, Specialization Knitwear, from the Fashion Institute of Technology (’04) in New York City. While at FIT, she attended a knitwear exchange program at Nottingham Trent University in England to further extend her knowledge of machine knitting and sweater design.
In 2014, Sara completed a two-year painting training based on the artistic indications of Rudolf Steiner at the Free Columbia Art Course in Philmont, NY. She then began her teaching journey and completed her Waldorf teacher training at Akion Center in 2015-2017.
Sara is currently studying botanical illustration online through the New York Botanical Gardens. She has illustrated two children’s books, Through the Rainbow, by Lou Harvey-Zahra, and The Kingdom of Beautiful Colors, an adapted Isabel Wyatt fairy tale, both published by Floris Books.
During the summer months, Sara can be found road-tripping and teaching out west. She also enjoys painting interior spaces and Waldorf classrooms using the watercolor “lazure” technique. When she’s not actually working she loves traveling, baking, cooking, knitting, sewing her own clothes, and spending time nature.