Sue Haseltine - An introduction

Nature and the landscape have been an enduring love throughout my life, from early childhood, growing up in the countryside to today. I now explore the outdoors frequently on foot and by bike. I find great inspiration in the colours, textures, smells, temperatures and atmospheres of the landscape. I love to be surrounded by space, the outdoors, hills or moutains and fields, feeling the outdoor air on my skin and smelling the earth, leaves, trees and plants around me.

 

This inspiration feeds into two types of work, one an intuitive response to the landscape and the other based on the pleasure of observing and recording some of the wonders of nature.

 

My main artistic influences are the Modernists of the early Twentieth Century including Klee, Braque, Matisse, Mondrian, Nolde, Kandinsky and Schwitters and the St Ives School of painters and sculptors. I am also inspired by contemporary artists such as Howard Hodgkin, Harvey Daniels, Melita Denaro, James Naughton, Elizabeth Blackadder and Peter Blake.

 

Abstract Landscape: Paintings

The process of making these images begins intuitively, each image gradually develops from the first marks that I make upon the paper or canvas, which I then respond to and build upon. Most of these images reflect composite memories of places, rather than specific locations they are more a response to marks, tones, shape, colour and texture.

 

In recent work, to reflect the winter season and the softness of the Downs I have begun a series of work where I use cooler colours including grays, pale blues and browns.

 

Abstract Landscape: Prints

 

For my prints I either work in the same way as for the paintings or take materials out into the landscape to directly work from the scene. I prepare etching plates in advance so that I can work straight onto the plate, capturing something of the atmosphere and weather conditions combined with the appearance of the scene. I also work onto a polyester film called True Grain for screenprinting to translate directly into screens in the studio for printing.

 

Flower Paintings

 

These images represent a very different approach to the natural world. I directly record what I observe, as truthfully as possible, aiming to capture the beauty of the flower in front of me or the flowers I have photographed. I find the way that I can play with the depth of field in photography particularly inspiring, and love to explore the out of focus areas on the image as well as the clarity of the flowers that are in crisp focus. I work mainly from flowers that I find attractive or photograph when out in the landscape or garden, but can also work to commission.

 

At times the two different styles of image making meet and intertwine as with some of my more recent pen and wash images.