Sue Howard - Mixed Media
Artist Statement – Silent Biographies
The paintings within this Silent Biographies collection are all non-traditional portraits which were inspired by my passion for people (often women): who they are, the events that have moulded them and the ideas that shape them as human beings. Through my painting process I seek to highlight the complexity and individuality of each human being that I paint by incorporating different visual elements, including puzzle pieces, symbols, quotes and other imagery within the pieces. In doing so I offer the viewer more than one single frozen moment in time in a person’s life.
Starting with a ‘found object’ (a pre-painted canvas) I apply multiple layers of imagery, materials, written expression and then I selectively lift and expose past elements giving a glimpse back into their thoughts and past ‘memories’. In doing so I create the painting’s individual ‘history’ and a visual ‘biography’ of the sitter.
In my reflections and meditations about my work during my recent completion of the Camino di Santiago I realised that it is women that I feel most passion about representing. Through my work I feel driven to recognise and acknowledge the strength of women that is so often hidden, ignored and yet prevails whatever life throws at them. My process involves the repeated application and redaction, layering and erasing, covering and disrobing of different thoughts, moments and elements leaving a composite image that evokes a sense of history; a freedom from the chokehold of the now.
The Simonides of Keos (c. 556-468BCE) quote 'Poema pictura loquens, pictura poema silense' (Poetry is a speaking picture, painting a silent poetry), speaks into my work through the deep connection that I feel towards both visual art and written expression. By using these two art forms, I aim to weave together the shared ability of each to convey emotions, evoke imagination, communicate ideas and tell stories.
Each completed piece offers a visual narrative that is an opportunity to enter into a book of time that has a past and a present and future yet to be written and thus becomes its ownSilent Biography. Using gold, silver and bronze to create echoes of the past I lean on their symbolism to give unspoken details of the story. The exposed layered elements offer a disruption from traditional portraiture, creating opportunity for reflection and questions. By mixing styles, periods and borders within the pieces I create puzzles that offer freedom of interpretation for artist and viewer; a freedom that enables both a recognition of the interconnected nature of different forms of art and an opportunity for exploration within.
Siren Series-Spring 29in x 17in $2675
Siren Series-Summer 29in x 17in $2675
Siren Series-Autumn 29in x 17in $2675
Siren Series-Winter 29in x 17in $2675
Witness 28in x 22.5in $3725
Excavated 24in x 20in $3725
Not Yet 36in x 36in $6480
Rock of Ages 36in x 36in $6480
L'Amore Della Madre 36in x 36in $6480
Found 28in x 22.5in $3725
Into the Night 14in x 14in $250
Drinks on the Terrace 14in x 14in $250
Iceberg Palace 14in x 14in $250
The Turn of the Tide 14in x 14in $250
La Luna 14in x 14in $250
Sea Horses 14in x 14in $250
Rolling Storm 6in x 6in $150
Sailing 6in x 6in $150
Climbing Roses 6in x 6in $150
My Angel 6in x 6in $150
Hunting 12in x 12in $250
Biography
Sue Howard’s work is shaped by her life experiences and interactions, international travels and the silent voice within. She spent her childhood in Bahrain with holidays moulded around her history loving father’s desire to follow the travels of Alexander the Great and St. Paul throughout Europe and the Middle East. Traveling alone to the UK at the age of 12 to board at Cheltenham Ladies’ College created an independent spirit that showed early in her (then) unconventional decision to study Civil Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Upon graduation she shelved her scientific background to embark upon a 10 year career in the international bond markets with Hambros Bank Limited where she met her husband with whom she has shared her life in Tokyo (Japan), London (England), Rockwood (Ontario) and now Chester Basin (Nova Scotia). Upon her retirement from the bank Sue’s life as mother to three children Joss, Isabel and Theo, combined with her eclectic career (which included natural nutrition, law, marketing and the founding and teaching at an elementary school in Guelph, Ontario) long kept her love and passion for painting sidelined. COVID offered her the opportunity to delve into art on a full time basis, moving to her summer home in Chester Basin, Nova Scotia in 2021. Since then Sue has broadened her artistic knowledge through academic studies with the Smithsonian Museum and the University for Creative Arts in the UK; knowledge that has fed and honed the contemporaneous building and development her artistic process and practice.
Sue’s studio is a small wooden space by the Atlantic Ocean, wooden and old she works to the sound of the waves and the whirlybird vent in the roof. The walls are littered with paintings that hang in testament to her development as an artist, every inch of wall is covered with paintings many done by her children during their childhood summers. Strewn at the base of every wall are piles of rocks painted by her, her family and friends and left behind as reminders that they came, and they laughed and they lived. Sue’s Studio is a living breathing time capsule. Each of Sue’s paintings is a unit, both unique and part of a greater whole - lines of song: words to reflect upon: chapters that tell stories: memories not lost: lives being lived – visual poetry. At first glance they offer hints of a narrative, minimal and understated, but in the deeper looking, therein in lies the past. Focus on the edges, see the layers built up like strata in sedimentary rock. Each layer is a memory, a painting that she has created, pondered, added to and covered up. They are abstract and yet, they represent time worked and time spent in contemplation. The finished paintings represent the moment at which Sue feels the process of their creation is complete, their memories imprinted, and that they imbue, in concentrated form, the essence of Kairos. The time to step back into the here and now of Chronos has arrived.
Technically Sue’s work is influenced by some of the early 20th century artists, Franz Marc (1880-1916), Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), and Francis Picabia (1879-1953), but her desire to be a voice for women within a traditionally male world is bolstered and led by strong women artists who have forged the path for the rest of us to follow. She thanks and recognises Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Nancy Spero (1926-2009), Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) and Etel Adnan (1925-2021)
Sue’s work is held in private collections in the UK, US, Canada and Bahrain.
Sue’s Refugee and Exile Series were displayed as part of the ‘Women For Peace’ exhibition in Chester, Nova Scotia, 2021.