The big picture

Painting primarily outdoors, Susan Gray is drawn to panoramas of land and sea to create energy-filled works

- Sandra Smith

Asking an artist to rationalise their choice of subjects is one of those ‘should I, shouldn’t I?’ conundrums. The enquiry, after all, is both clichéd and predictable. What’s more, balancing a response that accurately expresses the artist’s viewpoint, while being accessible to the reader, can be hit and miss. But it pays off when I put Susan Gray on the spot. ‘It catches you here,’ she unhesitatingly replies, placing her hand on her heart, ‘almost as if the painting is choosing you, even if the scene is ugly, stark or barren.’

Glancing around at the feisty landscapes and seascapes in Susan’s ground floor home studio in the village of Bovingdon you can’t help but embrace this artist’s enthusiasm which infuses both her conversation and her portfolio.

‘I started going to evening portrait painting classes at Dacorum College when I was 17,’ she says. ‘It was great fun and, while enjoying a career in the antiques business, I dipped in and out of art until my children were older, which is when I studied art and design at college in Watford.’