Painter from the North West of England
In my graphite works on paper and oil paintings, I lean into romantic tropes and aesthetics as a way of exploring fleeting psychological states. Although these visual languages may appear outdated, I’m often surprised by how contemporary forms of sharing intimacy online can feel as peculiar and revealing as the sentimental imagery of the past once did. Feelings that were once private and fleeting are now preserved. I’m fascinated by this evolving way of experiencing, expressing, and witnessing emotion.
The drawings Here, With and Staying feel the closest to the world I am trying to create. I am interested in creating emotional intensity held within a controlled and deliberate structure. I am increasingly interested in how the organisation of space can represent both transience and permanence within the same image. In Here, With, I wanted the eye to move slowly across the paper in an entangling, ornamental rhythm so I used looping pearls as if shocked and frozen in time with definite shadows. While, in Staying, stems and thorns cut diagonally through the body, creating electrical, jumping movements contrasting with the woman’s soft gaze on the glowing rose.
Susannah in her home studio 2025
A lot of my ideas start with small, everyday encounters. Like the prehistoric wasps that drift through my window, lost and disoriented. There is an odd grace to their futile circling, a strange poignancy in their struggle to find a way out. Or the wooden stools that become stages for tragicomic arrangements of objects. I'll sometimes include a phone, its eyes, a portal, angled upward, suggesting the vast, silent audience that is our constant companion.
I want the work to feel emotionally charged -romance, disillusionment, and beauty all coexisting with moments of volatility. The slow, deliberate layering of pencil or oil paint and the firm edges and shadows, hold these women, insects, and objects in poses they'll perform forever. It's a kind of visual stability that mirrors the digital archive, where a fleeting moment remains frozen in time long after the feeling has dissipated. In another way, the slow, careful act of drawing and painting becomes a way of restoring a sense of presence and emotional complexity.
My background in sculpture (BA Fine Art) and wardrobe departments in TV and theatre has shaped my approach to three-dimensional form and the expressive potential of clothing. Elements such as ribbons, belts or hair take on a life of their own. I'm fascinated by paintings that feel both flat and spatial at once, like the work of Robert Campin or Carlo Crivelli, where the precision of the fabric folds and shadows is almost audible. Going forward, I’m exploring ways of holding those two qualities in tension within my own paintings.
For price list, please email me at studio[at]susannahpal.com
For work in progress please see my Instagram here.
Education - BA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, UAL (2009) and PGCE Teaching Qualification in Art & Design, Institute of Education, University College London (2015).
Selected exhibitions - The Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy 2025, July 2022, The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries 2020, Secret Charter Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2018. Drawing in Uncertainties Charles Roe House, 2016. Art Makes Teachers Powerful, Menier Gallery, London 2015. Hand Joy, Centre for Recent Drawing, London 2009.
Podcasts ‘Where does inspiration come from?’ Tate Modern podcast for Picasso 1932- Love, Fame and Tragedy. I was a guest speaker. 2018
Funding - Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) - Arts Council England. 2023
Teaching - Selected institutions and galleries I have taught drawing at include The National Gallery, The Royal College of Physicians, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Battersea Arts Centre, Central Saint Martins, St John’s Church, Shoreditch Town Hall, West Dean House, Strawberry Hill House.