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Susan Laughton

Cheshire
The landscape is my starting point, not as a picturesque view, but as a space travelled through and experienced.
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Susan Laughton worked in architecture for twelve years before returning to education to study art graduating with a BA Hons in 2002. Her work is exhibited regularly in the UK and is held in private collections in the UK, Europe, the US and Australia. It has been selected for the Royal West of England Academy Drawn exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Annual exhibition and Fully Awake 5:6 at the Freelands Foundation, London. She has been a professional artist since 2006 and currently works from Vale Artists Studios in Cheshire.

My paintings and drawings evolve from half-remembered glimpses seen from the corner of my eye, fleeting juxtapositions elusive to photography, the dislocated reverie of long car journeys, or from more studied compositions. They are created from many visual sources that are filtered through sketchbook work and altered intuitively as the painting progresses.

The landscape is my starting point, not as a picturesque or static view, but as a space travelled through and experienced often on the edges of the urban and rural. It is a source of man made and natural structures, surfaces nd colour from which my reductive personal responses develop. I am inspired by distant horizons, the silhouettes of trees and rooftops contrasting expanses of sky interrupted by power lines, and by the architectural forms of vernacular buildings.

My long standing interest in landscape and architecture has always inspired my drawing and painting. Vernacular buildings, both rural and urban, domestic and functional, have found a place in my paintings for some time, no doubt also informed by time as an architectural technician. I am particular drawn to the triangular form of the gable ends of buildings, whether they be simple sheds, northern terraces, suburban 1960’s bungalows, barns or industrial warehouses. The move from painting to 3D forms was aninstinctive urge, a desire for a more physical, tactile exploration.

That exploration encompasses both the formal aspects of architectural, geometric shapes and what they mean in the sense of home, shelter, work and human endeavour and it’s impact on our external and internal landscapes. I think there is also an element of play involved in creating imaginary worlds, remembering the painted wood toy building blocks of childhood.

 

 

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