Yesterday I delivered paintings to the Thoresby Gallery for my solo exhibition,  ‘Light & Line in the Landscape‘, which starts on Tuesday. Cynthia has been hanging the paintings today, alongside a small selection of my ceramic sculptural works. There are over 40 paintings, drawn from a range of locations, reflecting the contrasting themes in landscape painting that I love – urban and countryside, man-made and natural environments, the large-scale versus intimate detail.

The eye instinctively follows patterns, looking for focal points within our visually rich surroundings. As a painter with an interest in buildings, I enjoy following man-made features of a landscape that repeat into patterns – be they the obvious rhythms of windows and doors or details of corbels, keystones, drip molds, fence posts and so on.  I like to give equal weight to both the general and the particular in my work. Leaves can have as much if not more of the limelight as cathedrals.

Susan Isaac – Southwell Minster from Hill House Field

The natural world contains alternative varieties of subtle and intriguing pattern making, from the distinctive gesture of a scoured cave to the lie of the grass. In making this painting of Tintagel I explored new methods of mark making, which offer interesting potential for future work.

Susan Isaac – Tintagel Isthmus from Barras Nose