Introducing
Susan Weaver | CHG Represented Artists
"Susan Weaver has developed a technique which sets her apart from other artists and technicians – the layering of the oil pastel or oil on canvas! The luminosity achieved is both powerful and alluring, compelling the viewer to look inside or into the depths of her paintings."
Mark Widdup.
About The Artists
With their richly saturated and layered surfaces, the latest body of works by Susan Weaver is as much a celebration of surface and colour, as is a metaphor for the creative act itself.
While Weaver draws inspiration and compositional cues from specific geographic locations, Weavers works are not literal transcriptions of the landscape, night -lights on a horizon, for instance, or the reflection of light across a moonlit sea, they serve more as symbolic suggestions than descriptions. The artist’s repeated use of specific geometric and compositional elements (arcs, the horizon line, diagonals) are part of a private lexicon of motifs that are open to a range of possible interpretations.
To this viewer, Weaver’s characteristic use of intense colour, the layer and scraped surfaces, repeated compositional elements and landscape subject, explore the process of reflection and introspection that are at the core of the creative journey.
Artists Statement
My work is the culmination of my imagination and reality. Inspired by the landscape and weather patterns, symbols are constructed that have specific meaning to me.
Images are created from memory. Themes are often revisited over time exploring the inter connections of living things and natural occurrences on the planet.
The works are multi - layered revealing previous grounds that lie beneath the surface. Colour, and the combinations of colour are an integral aspect of my practice.
I am interested in the metaphysics of painting and the aboriginal sense of place and belonging to a pattern or cycle of life.
CHG Director's Statement
Susan Weaver has developed a technique which sets her apart from other artists and technicians – the layering of the oil pastel or oil on canvas! The luminosity achieved is both powerful and alluring, compelling the viewer to look inside or into the depths of her paintings.
When they are exposed to more light either natural or incandescent they reveal the shadows, structures and emotion within. They offer an impact, with a rich colouring and tone that both radiates and attracts the eye from any angle!
Fine art by Susan Weaver
"Green Ocean" by Susan Weaver
"Fire Mountain" by Susan Weaver
Comments Of Note
From Jill Stowell review (NMH Art Reviewer)
"Her hieratic landscapes have an extraordinary luminosity from a range of reds created by rubbing back layers of oil pastel. The colour is an optical experience bordering on the mystical; the landscapes depict the visionary as much as the world of external reality."
From Meryl Ryan (NMH Art review)
"Fire's spectacular ephemeral beauty carries the promise of savage transformation, hence its mesmeric power. Venturing to paint it is something to which few artists - with the obvious exception of Tim Storrier - are inclined, and those who are, often battle with cliche.
Susan Weaver has no such qualms: fire in landscape is a recurring theme amongst her new work at Cooks Hill Galleries. Unlike Storrier, Weaver does not describe the actual appearance of fire, nor of the landscape. She searches the mood of the thing."
From Robert Cleworth (Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery)
"With their richly saturated and layered surfaces, the latest body of works by Susan Weaver is as much a celebration of surface and colour, as it is a metaphor for the creative act itself.
While she draws inspiration and compositional cues from specific geographic locations, Weaver’s works are not literal transcriptions of the landscape, Night-Lights on a horizon, for instance, or the reflections of light across a moonlit sea, serve more as symbolic suggestions than descriptions. The artist’s repeated use of specific geometric and compositional elements (arcs, the horizon line, diagonals) are part of a private lexicon of motifs that are open to a range of possible interpretations. To this viewer, Weaver’s characteristic use of intense colour, the layered and scraped surfaces, repeated compositional elements and landscape subject, explore the processes of reflection and introspection that are the core of the creative journey."
Awards And Prizes
1989 Winner of Newcastle Mattara Art Prize
1993 Winner of Regional Art Award N.A.S.
1997 Winner of BHP Art Prize
Collections
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery
Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery
Glasshouse Regional Gallery - Port Macquarie
Hunter Medical Research Institute
Newcastle Permanent Building Society
PWC: Price Waterhouse Coopers
Shaw Gidley
Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions:
1989 - Lake Macquarie City Council
1990 - Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1991 - Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1993 - Newcastle Regional Gallery
1994 - Holdsworth Galleries Sydney
Cooks Hill Galleries
1995 - Holdsworth Galleries
Cooks Hill Galleries
1996 1998 CHG
1999 - Michael Commerford Gallery
2000 2001 2003 2004 CHG
2006 2008 Amanda Phillips Fine Art
2010 Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery
2011 - 2016 CHG
Professional Career
Art Teacher
Education
1981- Sydney College of the Arts
1988 - Bachelor of Arts Visual Arts - Newcastle College of Advanced Education
1990 - Diploma in Education - University of Newcastle
Publications
Jill Stowell - Art Critic Newcastle Morning Herald 16/2/96
‘Susan Weaver’s hieratic landscapes have an extraordinary luminosity from a range of reds created by rubbing back layers of oil pastel. The colour is an optical experience bordering on the mystical: the landscapes depict the visionary as much as the world of external reality”Meryl Ryan - Arts Reviewer Curator Lake Macquarie Art Gallery 26/9/98
‘The real power, however is in the smouldering nocturnes with their lush mix of red, crimson, purple and indigo. Weaver does not describe the actual appearance of fire, nor of the landscape. She searches for the mood”