SUSAN RELPH NDD ATD PS SGFA
STATEMENT & BIOGRAPHY
Working from Life - Working with Life
August 1944 (weight 3 Ibs) My premature birth. Liverpool.
September 1960 Enrolment at Liverpool College of Art for
The Final Year before the New Art Degree began.
Sixty years later I remain thankful for this Twist of Fate
and grateful to be one of that Unique Intake.
The subsequent five years of study were -
A Wealth of Traditional Thought alongside Experiment/Critical Analysis
and Gestalt Theories on Perception & Learning -
With Immense Freedom for individual interpretation.
The Most Valuable Foundation for Individual Creative Development.
This profound Initiation has remained a crucial aspect of my creative conscience
within the continued study of Portraiture, Landscape, Architecture, Life and Still life.
Further investigation during Adult & Secondary Education Teaching, Workshops
and Demonstrations where fresh dialogue explored new territories
became an important continuation of my own learning curve.
I attempt to promote the Positive Benefit + The Essential Risk of
Working from Life............
Where Every Negative can be accepted and perhaps transformed
into something Pivotal.......
a personal reminder of continual critical self assessment.
With The Abstract Rescue & Recovery Resolution
Always an option.
The Ultimate Challenge of Portraiture - where the search for hidden qualities over several hours/days or years have always provided the greater depth of study - have become more valued over time.
My student sketch books describing life in the 1960's are still a useful reference.
I treasure one early study(1st in intense concentration mark making mode) -
of an oak tree twig found on the path to my local beach
- now famous (and very interesting due to high tide disappearance) for
Anthony Gormley's ' Another Place '
In recent years exhibiting mainly in the south of England and
with The Society of Graphic Fine Art & the Royal Watercolour Society at Bankside.
SGFA 100 Years Centenary Book 2018
The Botanical Society of Artists at Westminster Hall
and The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Exhibitions with The Federation of British Artists at The Mall Galleries London with
The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (The Debra Manifold Award)
The Royal Society of Portrait Artists
The Royal Society of British Artists
The New English Art Club
The Discerning Eye
The Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition.
The Pastel Society.
