Suzi Joel
Suzi was born in Malta and grew up in the UK and at various locations around the world as her father was posted with the navy.For many years she lived and worked in London, running a photography agency. In 2016 she moved to Norfolk to pursue her calling to make things.She has taught stitched and woven textiles to adults with learning disabilities and is currently training in counselling and psychotherapy as well as continuing her creative practice.
Suzi’s painting surfaces are not just any old bits of wood. Many candidates are discarded. She has painted on hardened leaves and bits of shell, and she is a nature-lover, but she seems most drawn to man-made objects that have undergone a transformation in, and back towards, nature.A blank canvas becomes a new painting when the first paint is applied, but Suzi’s works already have a character before she starts to paint on them. Unlike most painters, who plan things out with sketches, she works straight into full colour and bold shapes.Their evolution almost seems to consist of tending to them, teasing out just one of the infinite number of paths they could take. And knowing when to stop. She discards a lot of works, or perhaps ‘pauses’ them is a more accurate way to put it. Sometimes they get almost entirely sanded back or painted over.She likes to see her paintings around the house where both the work and it’s surroundings have their character altered in a way that’s often more awkward and powerful than hanging a picture in a space on a wall. A painting can have a presence more like that of a votive offering or warding sign.