SUSANNA LISLE
SUSANNA LISLE
ABOUT
My work looks at the interplay between organic form and mathematical language - exploring the idea that geometry and pattern can be metaphors for the visual world and one's experience of it.
I see Galileo's remark that "The book (of nature) is written in mathematical language..." as a true statement, offering endless possibilities of explanation in visual terms. These magical complex systems are reflected and replicated in hedgerows or winter branches or flower structures.
I have used Islamic pattern particularly to explore these ideas of metaphor and correspondence. I am interested that it is possible, from the simplest geometry, of circles, squares and triangles, a multitude of complex worlds can mutate. The forms which arise are untethered to any cultural aspect and are free to become useful components in each painting or drawing.
Within each work, geometry and pattern are hopefully at play with other painting traditions.
"I think that above everything else a painting should be an ornament", Maurice Denis.
Patterns whether geometric or natural lead the eye in a complex rhythm of entanglement and endlessness. The paintings I am making are seeking these sensations and ideas and they are strongly underpinned and expressed through colour and the formal issues of painting. I want colour to evoke the playfulness, sumptuousness and beauty of the natural world.
I am interested in a decorative field in contemporary Western art, and the work of those artists who appropriate non-western elements. Philip Taaffe, Beatriz Milhazes and Christine Streuli are important examples, their work ranges across geometry, traditional ornament and pattern, brought to life in a contemporary context.
Many studies in watercolour and gouache precede the oil paintings. These often become works in their own right.
Susanna Lisle was born in Yorkshire and studied painting at Goldsmiths College of Art, London. She completed her MA in Fine Art at Bath College of Art, Bath in 2011. She has exhibited widely and has carried out many commissions. She was the Chair of the Bath Society of Artists and currently lives in West Wiltshire.
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