SUSAN THOMAS

‘From my mid-teens I knew I wanted to do something creative, with set design an original plan and then graphic design, before Edinburgh School of Art known at the time for its emphasis on drawing skills, introduced me to Furniture Design. A BA in 3-Dimensional Design at Leeds followed, and an Msc. in Sustainable Architecture much later.

It was only when I ‘ran away to St Ives’, that I found the time and space to revive the exiting and creative ways of thinking that I experienced as an art student.’

Artist's CV

From my mid-teens I knew I wanted to do something creative, with set design the original plan, then graphic design – before Edinburgh School of Art, known at the time for it’s emphasis on drawing skills introduced me to Furniture Design. A B. A. in 3 Dimensional Design at Leeds followed and a Msc. In Sustainable Architecture much later.

 

It was only when I ‘ran away to St Ives’ around 10 years ago now that I found the time to revive the exiting and creative ways of thinking that I experienced as an art student.

I find charcoal drawings a joy to do. Perching on a street corner or taking an easel onto Porthmeor Beach with my back against Smeaton’s wall, built to stop the sand continuously blowing over the busy town. With a damp cloth and fixative at the ready before smudgy fingers make their involuntary marks.

These images are usually honed and maybe abstracted somewhat during the process of painting, in oil in the studio – which is now a delightful and ancient building in Norway Square.

My work also reflects the knowledge that this wonderful place – its apparent permanence over long periods of time and reliance on granite as a building material – is in reality fragile. Although it has withstood the pounding of the ocean for eons and fish has been hauled into boats and minerals hard won from its mines, we know we are in a time of transition – we look around us and recognise that change due to the fragility of our eco system, which has always been slow to happen, is both accelerating and becoming more significant.