Sue Johnson

I am a mixed media artist who works from a purpose-built and designed home studio in the beautiful historic town of Uppingham in Rutland. I love playing with shape, colour and texture in a mainly abstract or semi-abstract form.

I have a background in Printed Textiles and worked freelance for many companies worldwide for many years. I exhibited regularly in New York and L.A as well as Design shows in London and Europe. I have also been a part-time university teacher on the B.A Textiles course for over 20 years at De Montfort University in Leicester and at other universities from time to time. This design background undoubtedly influences my playful use of pattern, composition and abstraction.

I paint mainly with acrylics and use other mark-making media, often incorporating collaged papers and scratching through the many layers of paint on board. I like repurposing old books and any paper ephemera I can find. These often get covered, but tiny fragments can be exposed to reveal a sense of history and discovery. I always paint, monoprint or draw on my collage papers. I like how a brushstroke lands on a torn fragment of an old book page. I may cut out a diagram from a vintage manual. These elements are all unexpected, spontaneous and not predetermined, so the painting becomes playful and intuitive. Sometimes I enjoy reorganising them in a more structured composition or layout. Collage gives me unexpected opportunities to create relationships between marks, surfaces and shapes that do not necessarily belong together.

My work is constantly evolving and changing and it is that that drives and excites me. I am now making Art more like me. Sometimes I use recognisable elements such as a leaf, a botanical shape, or a vase or vessel. They may suggest to the viewer the kind of mood or context the painting is set in.