Sue Luxton SWAc
A day without drawing or painting, making marks or just looking at work in progress, can seem to be a day wasted.
Through life’s uncertainties the one thing that can be relied upon is the pleasure and frustration, of endeavouring to place together, the most perfect shapes and colour within a painting.
At the University of the West of England Sue chose a degree in Illustration which gave her the opportunity to explore figurative topics and develop an interest in printmaking. Here she discovered Max Beckman, Stanley Spencer, Maggi Hambling and Mary Fedden all of whom still bring inspiration for one reason or another.
Her work is mainly in oils but she occasionally returns to printmaking, creating small editions of monoprints and screen prints.
Sue is passionate about drawing and the necessity to draw to gain an understanding of the subject, not just its function but its soul too. Her sketchbooks are the first things she would save in a fire! All her paintings are developed from drawings made from the “everyday” and from time spent over the years, in Europe, Japan and America.
Tuscan Village
Courtyard With Olives
A recent series of paintings were based on drawings made on a small Greek Island in the Dodecanese. A destination often visited.
The bright light produces clear, flat images of the landscape and buildings and when it’s not too hot, the shapes of people sitting in the shade or completing everyday tasks. Adding figures to a composition produces a narrative, which gives a painting another layer of meaning. Current paintings are based on gardens, allotments and interiors.
Sue describes her day-to-day painting method as problem solving. Finding the drawing that makes the heart leap and then developing it into this unattainable composition of perfect shapes and colours.
I have been exhibiting for the last twenty years. Occasionally at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, galleries in Bath and in Cornwall with the St Ives Society and many other galleries and venues in the West Country. In London at the Affordable Art Fair and at the Meniere Gallery with the Society for Graphic and Fine Art. Before moving to Devon in 2014, I opened my studio for many years for the Open Studio events in Somerset.
