“Growing up on the edge of Dartmoor; a vast wilderness that has unconsciously been the inspiration for all my work from an early age. 

Ripping, splashing, sticking, painting and drawing with whatever I could find was my medium of choice. I loved breaking the rules even as a child, I was excited to see something strange and beguiling evolve from a random stroke or splash, working with that happy accident to produce the unexpected”.

 

Sue did her foundation course at Exeter Art School, followed by a three year degree course at Kingston University, studying Fashion design. She then spent time in Florence and in Rome working in the fashion industry.

 

“As a fashion designer in my early years, working in the world of ‘high couture’ in Rome, I carried a love of texture and the unexpected into my designs, translating those early creative influences into beautiful clothes.  I’m now a full time artist, living again on the edge of that wild landscape that captured my young imagination. Although I’ve spent many years trying to exorcise the ‘fashion’ element out of my work I have come to realize that it’s an important part of who I am and it should be embraced not discarded. So, I celebrate beauty, the female body in all its different shapes and diversity. 

 

Today I draw my inspiration from that same vast landscape of my childhood, I am inspired by the majestic, ancient trees that punctuate the countryside and I no longer shun my life in the fashion world but embrace it.  I still, as I did when a child, rip, paint, draw, stick and splash."