Squiggly Sue

Do you concentrate on one medium, or do you work in several? 

I am a watercolour artist. I have experimented with other mediums in the past such as acrylics and oils but I always come back to watercolours. I just love the way they work - their transparency and also their unpredictability. I work quite spontaneously and loosely leaving the paint to its own thing. I used to do children’s personalised collages and also pen and ink pet portrait commissions but decided to concentrate on my painting as commissions just got too much pressure, too stressful.

 Tell me about your workspace. 

I have a lovely, tiny but lovely little log cabin at the bottom of my garden. My dad died about 11 years ago now and left me a little bit of money so I spent some of it on my studio and I like to think he would have enjoyed seeing me in there. I would love it to be bigger so I could store more in there instead of all over my house. I would also liked to have been able to run workshops out of there but there is only so much space in my garden. It’s one of those long but narrow ones.  My desk looks out over my garden and my guinea pig run so I can sit and paint and watch the piggies and squirrel and of course my lovely dog Pippin. And I’ve recently bought a second hand drafting table that rotates up and down so I can leave my painting on there and use my desk for all the boring admin stuff.

 What inspires you?

I am inspired by the beautiful dramatic skies you see in autumn and winter and I love reflecting this in my paintings with colourful skies and foregrounds in silhouette. I do a lot of walking and exploring the Peak District with my husband and dog Pippin. I’m constantly taking photos of scenes, trees and wildlife particularly deer that catch my eye - although I don’t work strictly from photographs I do use them for inspiration and colour.  I enjoy laying the backgrounds on wet into wet and it is sometimes surprising to leave the paint to do whatever it likes, leave it to dry and come back to some surprising effects.

 Do you have a favourite piece in your Little Gallery exhibition? 

I love Stag Party - it was inspired by a walk we did in Wollaton Park, Nottingham where they have herds of both red and fallow deer. Stags and does do tend to keep to their own groups, apart from during the rutting season, but this was a particularly large group of stags all sleeping under a tree and they’d been out late which I found quite amusing. I love the way the central tree turned out and the colours in the sky behind it.

 How did you start doing what you do? 

I have always been drawing and later painting even from a small child. I was hoping to study art at college but is wasn’t to be. I got a full time job did a degree in business and got married had kids, got made redundant. Then started getting creative again, joined a watercolour group and the rest is history. 

 Do you work on your creative business full time, or do you have another job as well? 

I would absolutely love to be able to paint full time. However the term ‘struggling artist’ isn’t for nothing and the reality is it is really really hard to work to make it as an artist and to make it pay.  I used to work in the library which I loved but since being replaced with volunteers I now work part time in a local independent opticians as an optical assistant which I enjoy as I still work with the public and feel I’m helping. It’s also only a short walk away from my home.

 If you have spare time, what do you do with it?  

I love walking in the Peak District and everywhere really. My husband and I have a caravan which we love to take on short and long breaks away particularly to Cornwall. Everything informs my work!

 What’s next for you? 

Next for me I have the crazy Christmas season where I am exhibiting at a whole range of events including Staunton Harold Hall on 7-10 November - one of my favourites - and I’m basically living at Calke Abbey throughout December. I’m hoping to do more exhibitions next year taking my work further afield, some solo some joint and also to get my workshops up and running. I’ve got loads of ideas for new paintings so expect to see some new collections coming soon.