Painter from the North West of England
In my drawings and paintings I create dreamlike, tragicomic scenes to explore the strangeness of contemporary emotional experience. The digital age has altered the way we think about intimacy; the ineffable and once private is increasingly replaced by what can be performed, shared, archived or hoarded online. In my work, familiar, often romantic objects stand in for the inner life. Small encounters carry unexpected poignancy- like wasps drifting through my window, lost, unwelcome yet elegantly animating the space. When figures appear, they are deliberately unmoored: cut out, out of time, quietly yearning to be seen or fixed as a memory in another. Conceptually, the smooth painted surfaces act as a veneer over private chaos. My slow, devotional and exacting way of working resists the acceleration of modern life, becoming a form of care and intimacy enacted through the painted touch.
For price list, please email me at studio[at]susannahpal.com
For work in progress please see my Instagram here.
Susannah in her home studio 2025
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.