Sue
Bates began painting with no formal art training; but
attended courses with Clare Shepherd, Paul Riley and Fiona
Peart.
Sue enjoys looking for colour and pleasing shapes that
define her favourite subjects – bold flowers. She
does not use pencil in any of her work enjoying the freedom
of negotiating on the page until the final picture emerges.
Her work has an immediacy and freshness that comes from
this technique.
Recently she has been exploring depth of colour in
watercolour, she strives for a density of hue without
losing the transparent quality on the page. She enjoys
placing certain areas in sharp focus and allowing the
background to blur but not turn to mud or wallpaper.
IRIS 1 was an experiment in how blue can blue be without
turning flat! Sue often paints 4 or 5 versions of her
paintings before anything remotely satisfying appears.
Sue
paints mainly in Dorset in her gazebo studio, where
she can look out on her garden. Trips to Brittany have
widened the choice of flowers in season and she has
begun a new series beginning with the cosmos and large
sunflowers.
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