My work evolves from speedy, responsive drawings and painted sketches made on adventures in the landscape; canoe expeditions, Hebridean cycling adventures or walking the Sussex Downland and beaches. These rapid drawings capture expressions of fleeting moments, and inform the larger paintings.
I work in a very physical way, in an outside studio space for as much of the year as is possible; this helps to keep the air in the paint, allowing it's life and energy to gently invite the raucous chanting of the painting elves to encourage the process of letting rip with the paint; at which point a painting may or may not emerge and evolve into an expression of something that taps into what it felt like to be there at that time.
I never really know what my paintings will look or feel like until they reveal themselves and I recognise some hint of truth in them. Working in a chaotic, rapid intuitive way requires a discipline to stay alert to recognising those rare glimpses of that elusive sense of intuitive rightness. It's too easy to miss the moment and lose a painting by overpainting or over fussing, which annoyingly happens quite a lot. I am trying to develop a more rigorous yet fluid approach to being able to shift between the energetic moments of physical working and the quieter moments of looking and being aware of what is there on the canvas.
I graduated from St Martins School of Art in London in Fine Art painting and then continued at Brighton Art School to complete an MA in Fine Art and later a PGCE.
I set up Dairy Studio Art Courses in 2013 in Lewes where I continue to work and run painting courses.
Follow me on Instagram for behind the scenes. @susiemonn_art
You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ukm8aYcfIw
