About

Susan Whatling BA(hons), MAed, PGCE

Passionate about living…

Small slice from a large summer field painting, one of my earliest sold years ago.

“Expressing my passion and desires through art and design, gives me a voice and raises hopes for alternative possibilities. Creativity for me is a means of sharing and communicating in the world with others.”

Since the onset of ME/cfs, a debilitating, unpredictable and complex neurological condition, I have been living all the moments I can; the waking moments in between hours, days or weeks of chronic fatigue, pain and other numerous symptoms. I only tell you this to help with the understanding of what it has taken to get to a point for me to even consider that creativity can exist in my life again and the steps little by little it has taken to get to the action of creating and producing. While I am in the process of creating it means many other things may go on hold such as showering, dressing, going for a walk…there are usually physically limiting consequences. Much of my life, fortunately surrounded by loved ones, is usually quiet and hidden from view so if you do see me out, know that I’m celebrating that very moment with a renewed sense of awe and wonder.

A Little History and Context

I’ve always sketched and seen the world in pictures, I began selling my own ink drawings of architecture in the landscape during my teenage years, producing local Suffolk images based in and around the coast.

After leaving school I was fortunate to get a trainee role working as an architectural technician and later went on to study architecture at Leicester which led me to complete an honours degree in design. During that time, I was so utterly inspired by the traditional C17th and C18th Grand Tour, that a friend and I headed to Europe for a summer with only our backpacks and sketchbooks. Travel has been a large focus in my life.

Designing interiors, bespoke furniture & kitchens, garden design and in later years, graphic design.

As a postgraduate from Homerton College, Cambridge, I taught Art and Design in and around Cambridge. For the best part of twenty years I’ve since been involved in children’s education, while successfully completed an MA in Education. This was fundamental and relevant in furthering my development, passion and progression in printmaking.

As a member of Sudbourne Park Printmakers, we exhibit regularly. I also exhibit with Ipswich Art Society. Other exhibitions have featured many of my landscape paintings, animal portraits and a variety of design work which have been displayed locally in galleries and shops.

Sold work is now in private collections both in Europe and the United States.

Also the creative designer/artwork for the book: Your Guide to Early Honda Motorcycles and the David Silver Honda Collection, written by Roger Etcell, forward by James May and printed by Leiston Press.