Susan comes from a creative family background, with her parents, grandfather, and aunt all either dabbling in various art forms or encouraging Susan’s developing skills. Taking her art studies further after school, Susan attended the South Australian School of Art (where she also studied lithography), the Julian Ashton Art School, and The National Art School.
Sculpture
Susan’s sculptures are dynamic and striking. My favourite (being a writer and linguistics student) is Lost for Words, which features two hands carved in exquisite detail from a piece of salvaged huon pine. A white male hand grips one finger of an Aboriginal female hand, while the arms emerge from their respective dictionaries; Gumbaynggir and Oxford English.
(View the full version of Lost for Words.)
Another beautiful piece is Measure for Measure, which shows off the fine grain of the salvaged huon pine wood together with the detail of the veins and tendons of the hand, the artistic skill complementing the beauty of the wood perfectly. The choice of media and subject has a special meaning for me as this merging and contrast of very old wood (huon pine takes centuries to grow to full size) and the human form seems to show the impacts man and nature have on each other.
(View the full version of Measure for Measure).
View more of Susan’s sculptures on her website.
Painting
Susan’s First Supper painting intrigues and delights me. This painting is an interpretation of Da Vinci’s Last Supper, replacing the figures with thirteen women representing the different nationalities that make up multi-cultural Australia. The painting is rich with small details, including the national costumes and food of the different regions. At the centre of the table is an Aboriginal woman, gracious, though a little sad, and seen through the window behind the women is a view of Uluru, returning our thoughts to the heart of Australia, and the effects the “new arrivals” have had on this isolated continent.
View more of Susan’s paintings on her website.
Studying Da Vinci
A drawing and painting combination that fully illustrates Susan’s skills as both a student and teacher of Da Vinci’s techniques and vision, is Anatomy of a Smile : Mona’s Bones. Overlayed on a pale painting of the Mona Lisa is a careful study of the bone structure beneath the face – a nod to Da Vinci’s multitude of anatomical drawings and his determination to understand all parts of a subject, not just the parts that were visible to his eye. In her book, Draw Like Da Vinci, Susan shares the knowledge and understanding of Da Vinci’s techniques that she has gained over the decades of her own practice. The book is illustrated with many of Susan’s beautiful drawings, some captured step-by-step, for inspiration and guidance. Exercises with detailed instructions help to cement the concepts in practical application.
