Suzannah is a mother, artist and farmer, and lives in the Dungog Shire, on traditional Gringai land on the banks of the Dooribang (now known as the Williams River) in New South Wales with her partner, two boys, a dog named Ringo and a flock of sheep. After two years of getting a handle on farming and riverbank rehabilitation, she is making art again.
Originally from Wingham NSW, Suzannah’s work continues to reflect the landscape of outback South Australia where she lived for eight years working in regional arts development. While she is beginning to paint the green surrounds of her riparian environment, it’s the warm tones of the Whyalla and Port Augusta region that continue to dominate. The main areas of influence being Douglas Point (north of Whyalla) and the drive between Whyalla and Port Augusta. Suzannah refers to this area as, ‘the space in between’. Here you would find her on the side of the road taking photos or doing some drawings. You may ask, why would you sit on the side of the road? ‘I start at point A and finish at point B and hope that in between I will see, be revealed, transform. It doesn’t but it’s this hope in the space between that propels me, even if I know I will only find my unhappy or happy pile of crap still waiting for me at the end. It’s the space of the possible….the music blaring, the warm wind through the window, the rolly between my lips….its 45 minutes of possibility and hope’. Moving in the grand expanse of this space is an act of psychological reflection and it manifests in her art through the plains, the mesas, the Myall trees, and the edge of the Flinders.
Living on a river, also reflects that sense of beginning and end, and here Suzannah finds herself at a different phase in life…as the growing past echoes louder and runs past faster, like the river that flows past her back door. Night time on the river, is the time for reflection. The day of working on the farm and running after children slows down and ends in the silence of the night, and in the darkness the landscape is transformed into a ghostly wonderland. When the moon and stars are out, the light of the universe is reflected in the river, like the sky turned inside out. The sound of evening creatures and the gurgle of water bounce in the deep cavern of the river and we are alone and small in the cosmos. Suzannah is finding her work leaning into this landscape as she grows with it..that psychological landscape of the river. She cannot depict a landscape unless she has lived it, so it has been a while coming, but it is. We shall see what emerges.
Suzannah won the Grindell’s Hut Residency, and has been a finalist in the Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, the Basil Sellers Art Prize, the Waverly Art Prize, the Burrinja Climate Change Biennale and the Whyalla Art Prize. She recently won the Dungog Art Prize, and the pastel section of the Scone Art Prize.
Education
Bachelor of Art Theory (Honours), College of Fine Arts, University of NSW. (1996).
Grad.Dip.Ed (Secondary), University of Western Sydney (1997)
Grad. Cert. Arts Management, University of Technology Sydney. (1999-2000)
Suzannah attended private classes with Artist, Stephen James (MFA, College of Fine Arts, UNSW) in Branxton and Newcastle NSW. (2009-2013)
Solo exhibitions
A Personal Ecology
Newcastle Art Space, Hamilton East, NSW 1st – 18th October 2015
Long Sleep Plain
Yarta Purtli Gallery, Port Augusta Cultural Centre, Port Augusta, SA
March 5th – April 4th 2009 – Part of the Desert Fringe 2009
The Quiet Light
Works from the Grindell’s Hut Residency , Fountain Gallery, Port Augusta 3rd – 26th May 2007
Selected Group Exhibitions
Basil Sellers Art Prize, Finalist, Basil Sellers Exhibition Centre, Moruya, 2019
Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, 2018
Burrinja Climate Change Biennale, Finalist, Burrinja Cultural Centre,Upwey, VIC, February 2018
City of Whyalla Art Prize, Finalist, Middleback Cultural Centre, October 2017
Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, July 2016
Well Spring, curated by Stephen James; Cessnock Regional Gallery, March 2015
City of Whyalla Art Prize, Finalist, Middleback Cultural Centre, 2013
Marked – Drawing Now, Cessnock Regional Gallery, NSW 28th Feb – 24th March 2013.
Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW, 2012
Hunter Valley Art School group show, Lorn Gallery, NSW, 2010
Love Vomited, joint show with Fran Callen, August 2009, Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide
Shortlisted for the Waverley Art Prize, NSW 2008
Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW, 2007
Hummock Hill Art Prize, Whyalla Art Gallery, SA November 2006
Port Pirie Art Prize, Port Pirie Regional Gallery, SA August 2006
‘New Art 6’, University of SA, Whyalla Campus Gallery, August – September 2006
Prizes/Residency
Winner of the Drawing Prize of the Scone Art Prize 2023 (Judge; Artist Trevor Weekes)
Winner of the Dungog Art Prize 2022 (Judge; Elissa Emerson, Director of the Muswelbrook Regional Arts Centre)
Winner of the Pastel Section, Scone Art Prize 2022, (Judge; Elissa Emerson, Director of the Muswelbrook Regional Arts Centre)
Merit Award, Port Pirie Art Prize 2006, Port Pirie Regional Gallery, SA
Ist prize: Category; ‘Any other medium other than watercolour’, Hummock Hill Art Prize 2006,
Whyalla Art Gallery
Grindell’s Hut Artist Residency, Gammon Ranges (Northern Flinders Ranges) for four weeks during November 2006. Supported and funded by Port Augusta City Council, Northern Regional Development Board, Fountain Gallery and National Parks and Wildlife Services