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Susannah Blaxill

About the Works

Zone One Arts Interview with Susannah BlaxillDrawing and painting has been for me one of the great passions in my life. I first became interested in plants, their colour, form and structure during my early experience as a gardener, when I lived and worked in England. From a empty field behind a small cottage in East Anglia, I gradually created a small garden of one acre, planting trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, vegetables and fruit. I was entranced by plant form and spent many hours observing and considering carefully the plants that I grew.

I began to draw some of these, and over the months and years, gardening continued, but more as a resource for the subject matter for my paintings. Drawing and painting had become paramount. What began as an amateur fascination and pastime became a career change, and life as a professional artist.

Initially I was most interested in the perfection of bud, flower and emerging leaves. Slowly I began to see the extraordinary beauty in the entire life cycle of each plant and by closely observing this cycle, the next step was to record aspects of this transition from new born radiance to the exquisiteness of old age.

And so I found that the newly opened rose was as beautiful as the dying flower, the plumply fecund pomegranate as magical as the split fruit with its reddish/pink seeds.

It is very true that there is "perfection" to be found within "imperfection", for as a plant begins to near the end of life, it often reveals itself in a subtly changed form, and becomes once more a subject of supreme beauty. Thus the wrinkled translucent skin of an onion past its prime is as exciting and irresistible to look at as its younger counterpart with those thrilling milky grey-green leaves and plump fresh roots.

As I grew more discerning as a painter, my creative imagination became caught by such ordinary subjects. Of course, not "ordinary" at all. It is rare for people to see the beauty of a beetroot for example, but once set on paper, I find people are fascinated by the complexity and jewel-like quality of such every day plants. It is often in the quite ordinary, humble subject that we as painters and viewers stumble upon the extraordinary. Nature, indeed, needs no embellishment.

I am currently working in pencil, ink, charcoal and watercolour. Subjects are numerous and vary widely from flowers, vegetables, fruit, seeds, pods, fungi, lichen, trees to many other living plants.

If you are interested in discussing a commission, please contact me.

There are also non-commissioned works for sale.

Paintings and drawings vary greatly in size, style and medium with prices ranging on average from $2,000 to $60,000 Australian Dollars (unframed prices + 10% GST for Australian buyers).


Susannah Blaxill



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© 2005 - 2023 Susannah Blaxill
susannah@blaxill.com

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