.png)
About
About
Sue is a self-taught emerging artist who works in Perth Western Australia.
In 2024, Sue was a first-time exhibitor in the Lester Prize, one of Australia's preeminent portrait prizes, with her portrait of her son, Viktor: "You can call me Viktor Stronger".
_JPG.jpg)
Sue's Story
As a first-time exhibitor in the 2024 Lester Prize Sue was recognised for her talent at drawing with immediacy and energy. Her work "You can call me Viktor Stronger" is a A4 drawing on paper with pen with highlights using acrylic paint sticks. Sue describes her work as "a fast method of drawing, pure instinct, my brain and my hands are working in sync. My penwork is jagged, with scratching’s and suggestions. As an observer of people my medium is easily carried as I find my studio could be a comfortable chair, a train, a bus, a street or a waiting room."
My pen drawings vary from sparse and pared back, to a riot of suggested detail. The suggestion in these drawings is part of the magic. In “You can call me Viktor Stronger” the suggestion of hands is deliberate and the drawing focuses on the arms, their strength and potential. I learn from experimentation, and I am seeing myself grow artistically as I become more confident in allowing my art to ‘sit and breathe’. I learn how to problem-solve by pushing through my frustrations.
When painting on paper, my palette work is at time brutal and I feel a drive to work beyond this, where the importance of texture cannot be understated, contrasting with the fragility of paper with its rough, coarse nature.
Sue's Vision
Sue 's noticeable point of difference, is through her easily transportable mediums of pen and paint sticks on A4 paper. Sue’s practice embraces mistakes and errors in her drawings, and using an ink medium, there is no opportunity for erasure of lines or details, leaving the harsh visceral details, as a key focal point of the work. This style of work celebrates depth and honours the beauty in all the imperfections that make us human.
You Can
Call me
'Viktor Stronger'
Viktor is my son. This is how he wants to be seen. Strong. Powerful. Masculine. Do you see him? I see him. 25 years of seeing as a mother does. This portrait represents the struggle of letting Viktor be who he wants to be. So much more than what I permit him to be. This portrait is me finding the courage to help him be who he is. Viktor wants to be seen. Who do you see? Do you see Viktor? Does he fade into your periphery or does he come at you with his guns blazing? Strong. Powerful. Masculine. Viktor is powerful, he is funny, he is strong, he is difficult, he is ambitious, he is difficult, he is capable, he is difficult, he is anxious, he is a problem solver. Viktor is not satisfied with what he has. Viktor has Down Syndrome. Viktor is loved.
Strong. Powerful. Masculine. Loved. My Viktor.