Susan Clare

I paint in watercolours, acrylics and mixed media, drawing inspiration from Jamaica’s tropical environment, where I made my home for over 30 years. Subjects that inspire me include my tumbling tropical garden, Caribbean faces full of character and the underwater life I encountered daily, in my first career, in scuba diving.

I love to add mystery to my work with ambiguous passages of texture and light, colour and pattern. I strive to say more by doing less and blurring the boundaries between realism and abstraction. I like the medium to tell the story of how the painting was created, with runs, splashes and dribbles, or blocky brushwork.

I have spent the last five years in UK, expanding my artistic exposure and recognition. Originally from Westcliff, the move has renewed my awareness of the subtle colours and fresh charm of the English countryside. The themes in my work span two continents, but in common, they encourage mindfulness and a reverence for life in its natural, graceful simplicity. I want the viewer to feel connected to and, importantly, protective of, the natural world.

I was excited and honoured to win the SAA Professional Artist of the Year 2016 and receive the award for Professional Animal & Wildlife Category 2016. I am likewise, thrilled to announce that I have just received two SAA Awards this year in the AOY 2018, for Professional Animal & Wildlife and Professional Waterscene, Boats or Seascape. I have shown work at the Mall Galleries with the A & I AOY Finalists 2017 and David Shepherd Wildlife Fund WAY 2018.

I teach Watercolour Workshops on Tuesday afternoons at HOFS and I am delighted to now be numbered amongst the Studio Artists at HOFS, in Studio 20. I also teach watercolours and mixed media in full day workshops for Art & Craft Days and for RHS Hyde Hall, plus our weekly Butterfly Art Club on Thursdays, in Terling, Essex. I regularly give talks and live demos to art clubs, too.

I have exhibited widely in Jamaica and Florida and my paintings can be found in collections in ‘The World Bank’, Kingston, ‘JMMB Investment Bank’, Montego Bay, and in private collections in USA, Caribbean, Australia, Iceland, Europe and the UK.