Susan Webb

photo credit | Sandra Rabhan Kaye The Descriptive Techniques prose was written early on to explain what I do and use as a painter. I am mainly an alla prima oil painter, with the occasional use of acrylics and oil sticks, in a limited palette; a lover of drama, mood, balance and chiaroscuro; someone who does still-life when bored, watercolours to challenge thought processes, and life drawing classes to keep skills always moving up a notch.

20 x 16" 50 x 40 cm oil on oil paper Balance, colour, focal point, and tension are among the problems I think about whenever a brush is picked up. If a painting is going well I listen to Bach, Beethoven and beautiful voices. If it is a struggle, then Charlie Mingis, Miles Davis and the Rolling Stones get turned UP so I can just enjoy the moment, relax and stop worrying...it usually works!

1993 8 x 10" 20 x 25cm oil on oil board For a long time I painted lilies at the beginning of each year to see what might have changed in my work. This tiny oil always maintains my interest. One day I hope to do a large version of it and put the image in the 'really LARGE' gallery! Trouble is, I do not very often paint in this smooth fashion as is here. I love texture and the depth of paint. In fact only in portraiture do I use this flat texture.

acrylic The amazingly talented Jacqueline Fahey was my tutor at Wanganui Polytechnic Art Summer School in1994. She broke me loose from being an art student, for which I am ever grateful. After a flat-out week, I drove north over the Parapara Range to our cottage at Whakamaru, slept non-stop for 12 hours and made a make-shift studio on a gib wall. Finding some black building paper, off I went. This was one of the results. It was the starter for many of my series on pre-stretched loose canvas.

24 x 24" 60 x 60cm oil on linen I have a preconceived layout for each new painting but no idea of what it will look like when complete. The hardest part can be to know when it is in fact finished with nothing left to say. This skill having been taught then becomes instinctive. Here is the smooth finish which is perfect for it.

location | Canterbury strata 67 x 44" 170 x 112cm oil on loose pre-stretched canvas 10 black eyelets Colour with tonal balance is the thing which I rate most necessary to get right when painting, and I guess I apply the same criteria to most things in my life. The strength of each colour, how it reacts to its surrounds, what the tension is between each area of a painting, and how this all balances the end result, is what keeps me on my toes as I work away. This work to one of my favs.

location | Central Otago strata 40 x 30" 102 x 76cm oil on loose pre-stretched canvas 10 eyelets Next followed the 'Come on, girls' series. Try saying those three words anyway you like and the inflections in your voice will always reflect the mood of any of the ensuing 'Come on, girls' paintings.

12 x 16" 30 x 40cm oil on canvas Cass, Southern Alps, is the territory of NZ artists such as Rita Angus, Olivia Spencer-Bower, Bill Sutton, and Robin White whose images of Cass could be seen in the Robert MacDougall Art Gallery (now Christchurch Art Gallery). The offer of a crib at Cass to be used when I liked came at a time when space was needed. Cass has space and more. No mobiles, no radio, no TV, no newspapers, no work commitments, no family, no friends, no café society. Just time...

location | New South Wales, Australia 20 x 60" 50 x 152cm oil on canvas This work about the arid hinterland near Canberra became a parent of some of the 30 works in the 'Trees' series. It was when I craved doing long unbroken brushstrokes of full, luscious oil. In the beginning these used to take at least six goes to get them looking as though they were but a moment's whim. The 'Stand Alone' series is the culmination so far. Examples can be see in 'really L A R G E'.

location | The Far North 40 x 54” 100 x 137cm oil & acrylic on canvas I mainly paint contemporary land and seascapes because that is what always caught my attention long before I started as a mature student in the late 1980s learning how. Summer holiday time Up North of New Zealand soon became a source of inspiration.

location | Wellington 20 x 60" 50 x 152cm oil on canvas This work was painted over the top of an under-coated canvas which had been prepared with some acrylic paint I had lying around. Random vague splashes. I set up the design and then realised that the top oil painting was being influenced by freedom underneath and which meant another step forward. I finally finished this painting to my satisfaction in 2023.

location | Central Otago strata 48 x 36" 112 x 90cm oil & acrylic on canvas For me, the most rewarding paintings are those which combine oils with acrylics. Oils give luminosity, sensuousness, stability and substance, enabling textural wet-in-wet. Acrylics are abstracted buttery Golden, and free, making toned grounds of unpremeditated results. Add oils on top and beside. This combination keeps me on my toes.

location | South Otago 20 x 60" 50 x 152cm oil on canvas The high I get in starting and completely finishing a work of art in one session is what I treasure. These are always my hot favourites. Interestingly, and it is a dilemma, a work which I regard as my best can be the one painting which is left on the wall at the end of an exhibition. These I keep for my own collection, and the public comes round to them later. Sorry, it’s now not for sale. Its mine...Haha. They signify a subtle change.

location | South Otago 20 x 60" 50 x 152cm oil on canvas As a descendant on one side of my family from the Scots, I have travelled around Southern New Zealand to see where those early settlers came to. The Catlins on the coast is just down the road from my great-grandparent's founding settlement of Waitepeka, South Balclutha as shown above in 'Land of my Fathers 2006-09'.

12 x 72" 30 x 182cm oil on canvas "She also ventures inland to Central Otago in New Zealand’s South Island, focusing on views from the highways and seeking out particularly attractive patterns of the light on both hills and tree clusters along the way. All of this is created together in her own distinctive technique and style that makes Susan unique among the artists of her time. " - the late Denis Robinson, 1940-2012. Editor and compiler of many books about New Zealand painters.