Susie Hall – artist’s biography.

Within two years of starting painting again after a very, very long break, one of my paintings (City Lights 6) reached the semi-final of a Saatchi online Showdown competition and I had exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London. Invitations to exhibit at many glamorous and prestigious locations followed, and new invitations are being received regularly. To date, I have exhibited in Portugal and Chicago as well as on several occasions in London and elsewhere in the UK.

Like many children I always enjoyed painting and continued to do so throughout my teenage years, not with any particular intent – it was something I enjoyed and just ‘did’ – even painting colourful abstracts on my bedroom walls.

That was a long time ago, and over the years I have experimented with different mediums including textile and silk painting and pastels. When my children were very young, I rarely painted at all so I wrote stories and poetry, creating different world with words instead of colour.

Some years later I taught art at a local school before opening a paint-your-own- pottery studio in Bedford, my home town, which quickly became successful. Reluctantly, I sold the business some ten years ago for personal reasons.

The world works in mysterious ways. After another change in personal circumstances, about nine years or so ago I was commissioned to paint a few canvases and I was reminded how important painting is to me. I still love colour and get excited at the prospect of a new, blank canvas just waiting to be brought to life. My work reflects me in many ways – I paint intuitively and from the heart, nearly always choosing the colours first. Inspiration can come from anywhere, at any time; from something I see or something I think of or even from the lighting of stage or television sets. I often get ideas for paintings or colour combinations and shapes just as I’m drifting off to sleep.

I do not attempt or want to simply reproduce what exists already, but prefer to interpret what I see or feel and let my imagination lead the way to create something new. I resist being pigeonholed by what I do in life, or in what I paint. My abstract paintings are borne of my imagination, love of colour and passion to create. I now work mainly in acrylics, sometimes oils, occasionally both. My aim is to evoke a mood or perhaps prompt a thought that words alone cannot convey and, most importantly, to engage the viewer’s imagination.

I now have collectors in the USA, Ireland, Switzerland, France and Portugal as well as nearer to home.

I am constantly experimenting and developing my practice resulting in a diverse artistic output but all essentially linked and undeniably my work. It just goes to show it’s never too late to tune in to your passion and follow your dreams.