New artworks can be seen in SOJOURN by Suzy Strout exhibition at Newsagency Gallery, Petersham, 2049 https://newsagencygallery.com.au/

As a self-guided artist, I have been painting and drawing in the background of 35 years in costume design and production, and in family life. My first group exhibition in 2016 marked a change in my career direction to explore and redevelop my skills as an individual artist.

Although I started with watercolour and pen & wash I then painted primarily with acrylic, enjoying the immediacy of the medium and the freedom it allowed me to change my mind. Finding the  right brushstroke with the right consistency of paint is a part of the evolution of a painting that I love.

Moving between realism and a more impressionistic form, my current works have been with acrylic paints, oil paints, inks and oil pastels and collage as I emphasise the textures and shapes in the details of nature and our transient journey through the landscape.

Listening is akin to noticing and a clue to past history can often be found around the edges of the main focus.

I see patterns of lines, diagonals and curves that focus my attention in a scene; these are what pull me in and compel me to paint both what I see and feel. It is about capturing the less than obvious detail with a mixture of reality and illusion and savouring the moment.