Painter from the North West of England
In my drawings and paintings, I lean into outdated romantic imagery and aesthetics to explore how the way we present intimacy online will one day appear equally anachronistic and strange. Once private, fleeting emotions are now performed, shared and preserved. As if they aren’t real until they are seen.
My way of painting is the opposite of transient: slow layers and firm edges hold the women I paint in poses they will perform forever. A wooden stool becomes a stage for a tragicomic set of objects, yearning for tactile touch. Small encounters continue to surprise me, like prehistoric wasps drifting through my window -lost, unwelcome, yet briefly animating the room with a moment of grace.
Walter Benjamin’s idea of ‘aura’ interests me. Slow, devotional painting returns a sense of presence and intimacy at a moment when digital culture dissolves intimacy into something closer to solipsism.
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.