Susan Isaac – Paintings & Sculpture

I have twice been awarded the
Attenborough Prize
as part of
“Open: The People’s Exhibition“
at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery,
in 2022 & 2024.

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As a painter & sculptor, the common thread in my work is an endeavour to capture the spirit of things or places I have known, to seek to illuminate aspects of the world that have captured my imagination – to evoke feeling.

Cardiff born and now based in Nottinghamshire, my work has won several Awards, including the Attenborough Prize (2022 & 2024), 1st prize in Paint Out Norfolk (2020), the Thoresby Open (2017), and the D31 Art Gallery “Our Changing World” exhibition (2021). I have also been shortlisted in the Sir John Hurt Art Prize, highly commended in the Buxton Spa Art Prize and appeared on Sky TV’s ‘Landscape Artist of the Year‘ – appearing as wild card winner in 2021, as a shortlisted ‘pod’ contestant  in 2022, and as a Finalist in the 10th series in 2025.

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I paint mostly in oils in a loose figurative style which occasionally dissolves into the abstract elements of my compositions, combining strong drawing skills with bold use of colour and application of texture. My subjects are mainly towns and seascapes. I love the insistent repetitive textures of the built environment contrasting with the gentle rhythms of nature. My coastal depictions and harbour scenes are a transposition of childhood memory onto current day experiences.

Alongside this, many of my ceramic sculptures are a fusion of human and landscape forms.

Hand-built stoneware geomorphic heads, referencing the mining landscapes of my birthplace, are enhanced using a variety of glazes and stains and are often wood fired to produce exciting and contrasting surfaces.