Susan Franklin’s paintings are inspired by landscape. Whether an investigation of the minute or the microscopic, a long view influenced by landsat imagery or a view from the air, her works are associated with aspects of the natural environment. The colours of landform, the seas, rivers, stands of trees, open bushland, clouds… all are fair game for her imaginative interpretation.

With colour as her starting point she chooses one, or a series of colours, that best express the feelings she experiences when observing a particular phenomenon. From there she deliberately avoids drawing or painting in a realistic fashion. Instead, Susan strives to find the kernel or nub of the experience by utilizing colour, gradually building up layer upon layer of thin washes interspersed by thin colour glazes. There is usually an interior privacy or recessional depth representing the feeling of spirit of place in her paintings.

The resulting paintings are beautiful abstractions of aspects of the landscape. Thin veils of translucent paint build up mysterious surfaces that are open to interpretation by the viewer. Many glow with deep reds, oranges and yellows, as though heated from within. Others have much cooler palates, with watery blue washes over pale yellows, reminiscent of tidal marks, or crystal clear waters lapping upon a beach.

Susan’s paintings are abstract in that they achieve their effect through the grouping of shapes and colours in patterns rather than representing a reality. Viewers constantly bring their own personal interpretations of what they see and experience to her work, often with recollections of places or events. Thus, the interpretation of the painting is very much in the imagination of the viewer. This is enormously satisfying for the artist as she feels there is a unique collaboration going on between her and the viewer. The titles for her paintings, such as Palimpsest too and Broadband, are a further deliberate ploy to allow the viewer full reign for imaginative interpretation.

Susan was born in 1944 in England and arrived in Australia in 1996. She completed a diploma at the WA School of Art and Design in 2000 and has held two previous exhibitions at The Church Gallery; Thermochromism in 2001 and Lithochromism in 2002.

*prices valid 2004