Susan Isaac – Paintings & Sculpture

I’ve completed the first of my wide landscape views of Southwell Minster. In fact I did this one as a triptych, using three small canvases to get the greater width. Its a view I especially like – with the Minster seen through the Remembrance Gate at the recreation ground. The gates of the arch are approached by an avenue of trees that normally more or less obscure the Minster but in winter, with all the foliage stripped away, the structure of the tower and the gates is revealed, whilst the substantial tree trunks themselves lead into the composition.

Susan Isaac - Southwell Minster from the Park in Winter (oil on canvas, each 30 x 24cm)

Today I worked out in detail a series of Minster landscapes using small wide canvases. My intention has been to open up a new set of possibilities in terms of composition and my ideas have crystalised following research over the winter and spring months just gone, when I repeatedly walked over the areas I was interested in making sketches and taking photographs. The greater width I am planning enables long runs of the Minster roofline, not possible with the square format, and a broader sense of the landscape in which it sits. The small size lends a certain freeness to my painting – as if I am working on quick preliminary works – I don’t feel so precious with the canvas.  It all feels more experimental than usual, and my hope is that the results will be a fresh and varied series of landscape views.