Susan Entwhistle

enquiries@NorthumberlandArtGallery.co.uk

Bird Watching Harlow My acrylic paintings use a contemporary version of the pointillist technique which stemmed out of the textural effects of my embroidered textiles and are a more recent evolution of my design work. I am inspired by all the contemporary artists whose work has a certain textural, layered effect, a considered composition and a vibrancy and richness of colours much like a creative piece of textile design, from the simplicity of traditional Japanese art, to Gustav Klimt’s landscapes, to contemporary book illustrators who create an other worldly atmosphere in their work. But mainly I am inspired by what I see in nature always seeking out the next beautiful image within a landscape. Trees often play a central theme in my paintings either in landscapes, or in more ordered environments of parks and gardens reflecting my love of the out doors and the vast array of fantastic gardens we have in this country. I use layers of painted dots to build up the image creating an explosion of colours that are all applied with a paint brush. This does make it a fairly labour intensive technique but I believe the effect achieved makes it worthwhile. I am always experimenting with techniques that do not restrict me purely to dots, sometimes bigger marks and linear strokes are incorporated depending on the subject matter.

Winter Frost Bluebell Woods Fritillary After gaining a degree in Knitwear Design I went on to work as a designer in the textiles industry in Scotland, London and New York, regularly designing children’s embroidered home ware for companies including John Lewis and Laura Ashley. I also continued to sell embroidered textile art through various galleries until I started painting in more recent years. I was always painting when I was younger and see it as a return to my first love of art. My background in textile design brings a certain quality to my paintings with a creative approach to colour expressing my enthusiasm for this element. As well as painting I now focus on designing and publishing my own greetings card range and limited edition prints from my original art work. My Bells & Whistles greetings card range include the ‘Dougie & Friends’ collection, now taken on by Valentine Marketing following success from the Spring Fair earlier this year. It combines embroidered textile backgrounds with painted dog and cat images in a fun collection of mischievous characters. I think my art work is suitable for commercial publishing as it has been created from the mind set of a design background which gives an added dimension to the creativity that is applied to each painting. I believe my knowledge and love of colour combinations shows through in the painting style I use and my design back ground influences the compositions I create in the work. Also the general feedback on my paintings is that they are that bit different and refreshing to see which makes them stand out from other work and therefore gives them commercial appeal.