‘The painting full of light, the perfectly judged brush stroke, the well observed subject, and never quite being able to pull it off, is what keeps me going’
- Susie Whitcombe
Painting has been in Susie’s family for generations. William Evans of Eton, the celebrated 19th century watercolourist was her great great grandfather. Susie has had little formal training, but for a number of years she attended life and portrait classes at the Heatherley School of Art in London, under John Walton. Artists who have had an influence on her work include Wilfred de Gheln and Joseph Crawhall. Tom Coates who died in 2023 and the Australian realist painter Robert Hannaford, remain two big inspirations today.
Susie prefers to paint outside and from life where she has learnt her loose confident line, use of colour and accurate observation of animals which is a hall mark of her work. She has exhibited in London, Kentucky, Melbourne and Tokyo. Her first solo exhibition was with the Malcolm Innes Gallery in Walton Street in 1981.
Solo London exhibitions of her work have been held in Cork Street and Duke Street, however since Covid restrictions forced her 2020 exhibition into her Studio in Hampshire she followed the success of that with a further sell out show in her Studio in 2024. Her next show of work will be in 2027.