Susan Isaac – Paintings & Sculpture

Began two more pictures of Minster – one view from beside the Minster Cafe, the other from Potwell Dyke. In the first view, I wanted to use the cafe furniture with red parasols in the foreground – looking for a colour inversion effect from the strong reds and the washed out green-blue of the sky. Still feel the effect is not yet strong enough. The Potwell Dyke view appealed because it was looking at the Minster through a gap in the hedge, with a piece of fencing holding back a brightly lit piece of field in the middle ground. Both paintings were meant to be painted a bit looser with details in places added later – blocks of colour indicating main areas. I didn’t think I had gone far enough in this – still being too tentative. Put to one side to consider later with fresh eye.

Finished a painting of Minster from Trebeck Hall side. Really love this view, with much of the cathedral obscured. I liked the intrigue of the garden gate in the foreground.  The end result reminded me of John Piper with his dark, black/red/brown, semi-graphic depictions of churches.

Susan Isaac - Southwell Minster from Trebeck Hall (oil on canvas, 40 x 40cm)

Began repainting a view of Minster through the north gate, off Church Street. Hadn’t liked the initial painting – too ‘safe’. So had built up layers of texture and obscured most of my early details. I wanted to retain some of the play of light through the foliage on the right – the orange was intended to convey a gloriously warm summer afternoon with the heat radiating off everything. Abstracted foreground areas but retained the figurative form of the cathedral.  Pleased with end result.

Susan Isaac - The North Gate to Southwell Minster (oil on canvas, 40 x 40cm)

I’m working on a new series of Southwell Minster paintings on square canvases. Today, started a view with the West door of the cathedral in the snow. Beautiful, clear sky with delicate shades tinting the snow on the ground. Work went smoothly.

Southwell Minster’s West Gate with its ancient bell-shaped yew trees on either side is an impressive prelude to the Minster itself. In this painting, the cathedral is relegated to the background. I loved the way the snow clothed the Yews, which gave opportunities for shadows helping to emphasise their shape. This oil painting came very straightforwardly, with a sense of the freedom that I find a watercolour more normally allows – the painting virtually creating itself – with me just orchestrating the compositional elements.

Susan Isaac - The West Gate of Southwell Minster (oil on canvas, 20 x 50cm)

The view of Southwell Minster across the Potwell Dyke has layer upon layer of field and hedge boundary and trees. The Minster becomes another layer in this theatrical stage. The winter snow picks out these intermittent layers of dark hedge and white field.

Susan Isaac - Southwell Minster from the Potwell Dyke (oil on canvas, 20 x 50cm)

Another view of Southwell Minster made available in the winter months is through the gardens of the Bishops Palace. The intervening branches create wonderful tracery overlaying the building itself. Strong lemony greens caught my imagination here and I set up contrasts using black delineated structures in the foreground.

Susan Isaac - Southwell Minster from the Recreation Ground (oil on canvas, 20 x 50cm)