Suzy Sharpe Artist & Illustrator: 2016

I have a number of projects lined up for 2016,many of which are not fully formed in my mind at the moment. As you may have noticed, I have an ongoing relationship with animals, wild life and the wider natural world and this will flow through all of my work I have no doubt.

In one of these projects “Observe (or) A View From Here” (2 possible working titles) I will explore the place I call home (between Helston and Redruth in rural west ish Cornwall) and the surrounding countryside. I am considering moving house over the next couple of years and want to focus a little of my energy recording and documenting my experience of being here. I walk most days, photographing and collecting with a strange kind of compulsion as I go, always mentally recording the changing seasons and the ebb and flow of the weather cycles, flora and fauna. The painter John Virtue said something along the lines, that his paintings are the only record of his presence in the landscape. I do paint and draw the landscape, but I dont feel my visual language for this has settled yet, so this is an area for my focus. I have always photographed and made prints of objects found and will continue with this, together with gathering narratives and of course painting and drawing the birds and animals who share the space. I have an exhibition booked at the wonderful Helston Museum in October where this project will be exhibited.

Here are a few examples of I might further explore and some of my ideas so far.