It is important to question what is in front of the eye and close consideration of formal aspects (shape, colour, texture) as well as emotional responses towards sitter or object informs a work in progress.
There should always be a sense of wonder in the world and Susan’s intention is to imbue her paintings with a ‘joie de vivre’.
Artwork created in lockdown initially stemmed from still life subject matter. 'Coffee Pot Conversation' directly relates to recent events, and the newspaper depicted was a copy of the last Evening Standard that she saw before everything closed down, March 2020.
More recenlty, inspired by a summer of sport at the Olympics, Susan created a series of tennis player paintings. A nostalgic look at some of the famous names from the sport.
Susan gained an MA (Hons) Fine Art from Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art (1989-1994) and continued to The Slade (1994- 1996) to complete a postgraduate in Painting. Whilst at Edinburgh University, Susan was awarded The Valgra Trading Prize for drawing and a John Kinross Scholarship (1994) from the Royal Scottish Academy to visit and study in Florence. At the Slade, her time there was spent in the life room and she was awarded a Duveen Travel Scholarship to travel to Barcelona (1996). She has been the recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (Montreal, Canada) twice, exhibited in the BP Portrait Award and her work is included in the publication 500 Portraits: The BP Portrait Award (2011). Susan has taken part in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year (2013,2020) and Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year (2015), ING Discerning Eye, 2020. After her studies Susan held an artist residency at the Florence Trust Studios, London, and St. George’s School in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. She has exhibited widely throughout the UK.
Susan taught History of Art at Wycombe Abbey School (1998-2001) and is now currently Head of Art at Bedales Prep School.
