Suzy Sharpe - Featured Artist

Painter of Animals, Born in 1967 in Manchester, Suzy Sharpe studied graphic design and illustration after school, but followed a career in life assurance. She returned to painting when her child was born in 1991. She moved to Cornwall in 1995 and since then has had the pleasure of keeping animals which have been a constant part of her life and are usually the subject of her work.  Working with Galeria Acrylic, usually the 250ml bottles, she begins her paintings using a palette knife to achieve the texture of fur or feathers, then building layers of thinner paint using her fingers and brushes to blend and soften, finally she uses transparent glazes applied with brushes to create shadow and a sense of the three dimensional.  

She also enjoys using designers Gouache, inks, oils and watercolour but finds with Galeria Acrylics she has just the right consistency and drying times to work spontaneously whilst achieving as much detail as the subject warrants.

Barn Owl

Guinea Fowl Profile

Running

Suzy's work explores her fascination with birds and animals, her father was a butcher and the family always kept animals, so it is possibly very predictable that she should choose them as her subject matter. Suzy is currently painting uncommissioned portraits of animals from the Cornish local farming community and is especially interested in those farms who have chosen to diversify into keeping unusual animals. So her most recent paintings are of Llamas, Alpacas, Rare Breed Manx and Longwool sheep, Redcap, Chickens and Guinea Fowl.  She has been welcomed onto some wonderful farms and met some very interesting people and animals. Suzy's finds that some people find it a little odd that she should chose to paint a duck or chicken in a traditional portrait style and maybe it is. It intrigues her that we hold some animals in higher esteem than others and choose some as pets, others to eat and some as deities in indigenous cultures. 

Middle White Pig

Muscovy

Dillusion

She also paints wildlife extensively and considers herself very fortunate to live in Cornwall with a range of incredible resident and migratory wild birds to hand, however,  she often chooses to paint the humble Crow or Herring Gull, Suzy tries to capture a sense of energy or personality, that unambiguous characteristic which makes a particular creature so unique.

Suzy has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Cornwall and further a field, her work is included in collections throughout the world.  Further information can be found on Suzy's website http://www.suzysharpe.net/