Susan Laughton

Susan Laughton worked in architecture for twelve years before returning to education to study art, graduating with a BA Hons in 2002.

Susan has been working as a full-time artist since 2006, currently working from a studio in Cheshire.

Susan’s paintings explore observed and imagined architectural and topographical forms. They evolve from half-remembered glimpses seen from the corner of the eye, fleeting juxtapositions elusive to photography, the dislocated reverie of long car journeys, or from more studied compositions. They are created from many visual sources that are filtered through sketchbook work and altered intuitively as the painting progresses.

The landscape is Susan’s starting point, not as a picturesque or static view, but as a space travelled through and experienced. It is a source of man-made and natural forms, texture and colour from which reductive personal responses develop.

Vernacular buildings, both rural and industrial inspire imagined architectural forms that play with ambiguous perspective, while distant horizons and the flickering lines and silhouettes of trees contrast expanses of sky.

“Structured and methodical approaches combined with spontaneous and intuitive reactions allow me to plan and take risks: to combine control with ‘let‘s see what happens if…”