I was born in Singapore, and have lived in the UK since 1994.  Coming from the Tropics, I miss the sun and heat, so in my paintings, I try to capture light.  

In 2012, I became the first local Artist in Residence at Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham.  The residency inspired the series Parklife - based on a very short period of time each year, when the sun is shining and the days are long.  We are all happy and all is good and right in the world. We rush out to the parks: we have picnics, we walk the kids and dogs, we cycle, and of course what is summer without the endless games of cricket?  The park dominates each work and all animal or human activity merely suggested.  In fact in some of the works, you have to look closely to notice the activity – fleeting moments in time, contrasting with the permanency of the trees of

the parks.

Art critic Carol Cordrey says of my works:

Her paintings leap off the walls because of their realism which is not achieved through tiny brushstrokes but through the bold, skillful handling of chiaroscuro and varied paint effects applied with palette knives. Majestic trees contrast with vast swathes of grass...cool, dark shade combines with hot, gleaming sunshine...strongly textured, tactile bark is juxtaposed with delicate, fluttering leaves and each vast scene is injected with life through a handful of subtly defined, distant, human figures.

 

Equally remarkable is the fact that Susan’s landscapes glow, not solely because of the light effects she employs with aplomb but because each painting is coated with resin after the acrylic paint has dried.  This final flourish results in dazzling colours made more intense by the surface sheen, an effect that can only be appreciated fully when her excellent work is seen “in the flesh”.

 

Since moving to Cambridge in September 2012, I have been awed and inspired by the sheer expense of sky in Cambridgeshire.  I am now working on two new series - Camlife and Skygazing.