Susan Laughlin

I attended Art School in Ipswich as a mature student when my daughter started school, thus beginning a six year education in Fine Art; I studied for my B.A. (hons) and M.A. at Norwich School of Art, finishing in September 2000.

I live with my husband, just into the Suffolk side of the beautiful and serene Waveney Valley in a 500 year old, timber framed, thatched farm house along with our four Border Collies and a small flock of rare sheep.

For as long as I can remember. I have been fascinated by the historical essence of the landscape, the hinted at memories of ages past that it contains within it. As a child, I was transported back in time when visiting such places as Grimes Graves and Orford Castle; one might dismiss this as the overactive imagination of a young child, however, they had a tremendous impact on me then and continue to do so now.

I adore the winter landscape. The contrast of the bare earth and sculptural essence of trees silhouetted against the pastel shades of a winter sky, the early morning fogs that sometimes linger all day and the quality of light cast by a low sun, never cease to move me. For me, it is during this period of the year when the memories of the landscape become more accessible.

I am also drawn to areas of marshland. For me, they are timeless, evoking remembrances* of times long past before industrialisation and the motorised vehicle; from time when our landscape and our lives within it, were far gentler and more simole.

Walberswick Marshes are a magnificent example of this. The derelict windmill and the broad vista it sits within as you look westwards towards the setting sun, the reed heads glistening silver in the receding light of early evening and swaying gently in the breeze. The call of the water birds and the occasional sighting of a Marsh Harrier or White Egret; a landscape that has changed little over the millennia and in which the tradition of harvesting the reed beds for thatching in autumn continues to this day.

It is these musings that I now combine with my life-long passion for drawing and painting and which I endeavour to communicate.

*’Remembrances’ - A poem by John Clare, known as the ‘Pauper Poet’, who
wrote of the changing lanscape during the industrial revolution of the 19th Century.