Sue’s work is inspired by nature, from the lush wetlands and rockpools near her coastal home in the Illawarra, to the dynamic entanglement of flora and fauna, light and rock in the bush and gullies surrounding Hill End.  In her paintings, bushscape and seascape are interconnected in unexpectedly powerful ways through the splashes of magenta, mint, aqua, and grey of coastal topographies to the orange, blue and pink, olive, grey and yellows of the bush. As the light transitions from a soft grey morning mist dusting the leaves of majestic gums in Hill End, to the fiery sun setting over the Illawarra escarpment, its rays glowing red in the tidal rockpools where strings of seaweed assume a golden glow, the realm of imagination is stirred.

Looking upon the panoramic verdure that is the wetlands of Tramway Creek you are compelled to reconsider the interconnectedness of our coastal and bush topographies.  The scent of salt hangs heavy in the air as the north easterly wind stirs the wetland reeds revealing the sanctuary of native birds. Magenta is used in these latest paintings and the eye is drawn to this calming shade. The pigment serves as a perch helping you navigate this abstract terrain—the scanning eye pauses, the mind reflects.

The senses are further stimulated by the parring back, scrapping and at times thick layering of oil on canvas revealing an intricate bond between land and sea.  Bush and sea, wetlands and wildlife, wind- bearing salt spray—balance and fusion- nature’s ode to harmony. The terrain shifts, the shoreline lures and gentle waves caress the sand. From this viewpoint cast your mind to what lies below  the aqua, an ecosystem of plants and marine life, darting fish, seaweed swirled and carried by the current, an octopus- its flailing tentacles forming a gossamer beard.  As Albert Einstein directs us, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better”.  This collection evokes the natural world in abstract. Each painting encourages you to look beneath, to think and rethink and to marvel at the magnificence of our natural world, of the ever-changing coastal and bush vistas, their hues, their interconnected pulses.

- Dr Robyn Morris
Lecturer & ERA Facilitator
University of Wollongong