Author: Sue McMullen

Sue McMullen is an acclaimed British freelance Fine Artist, whose biography is in the “WHO'S WHO IN ART", the "DICTIONARY OF INTERNATIONAL BIOGRAPHY", and the "WORLD'S WHO'S WHO OF WOMEN", as she is recognised to be one of "Britain's leading artists." Her various sizes of oil paintings, A1 pen and ink drawings, and the mixed-media work of etching, watercolour and gouache, are famous for their atmospheric qualities, attention to detail, and sense of Form. Sue McMullen's work has been in over 75 Exhibitions, and has sold internationally, particularly to Australasia, United States of America, Austria, Europe, Switzerland, Nationally, Ireland, and now China. The motivation behind her distinctive atmospheric work is symbolism. Boats, trees and buildings are all portrayed as symbols of the SELF. Tension is coterminous with life portrayed in the paradox of light and dark. AIM/TECHNIQUES I am drawn to the light, and all that is immersed in the fleeting shadows created by the movement of air, sun and water. Grey/brown staining forms the foundation of my paintings, which is used as part of the image, working with it through to the light from the dark. Etchings were printed in sepia, which is then used as an innovative mixed media technique inclusive of water colour and gouache. Drawing is the foundation of all my work and I also have focused on detailed large pen and ink drawings. Buildings became for me a symbol of the inherent disconnectedness within life. They became a way to portray wholeness, the realization that all things have a sense of belonging together, a symbol of the inherent disconnectedness within life. Painting buildings was a way to portray wholeness, the realization that all things have a sense of belonging together. It was while I lived in Newcastle and Northumberland that I saw the city's Victorian buildings ’inherent beauty. "Why it's a looking-glass book, of course! as Alice realized.” The paintings of people with their urban environment were gratitude as the solitary embraced community. Now people inhabited my streets. This I had never done before! Trees also became what enthralled me by their intrinsic beauty enmeshed in the movement of an autumn's afternoon breeze, and resident within the profound shadow created by the transitory sun. The trees were enveloped by the dappled touch of the penetrating iridescent light portrayed as coming from the East. The blue light is a symbol, that despite all experiences to the contrary this life is about light which the dark cannot overcome. And these tree paintings were influenced by Arthur Rackham's atmospheric illustrations of a partially hidden world that belongs to the child. Water and boats were a strong influence in my childhood growing up in a city with the sea at its heart. I painted little coble boats as symbols of the self. In the little harbours groups of rowing boats were huddled together in the late afternoon, waiting for the morning tide, with the rippling waves touched with a kaleidoscope of fleeting touches of light.