SUSAN HEAL

Racoon Skull

Susan's most recent work has revolved around this racoon skull she found in her woodland garden. This piece is a graphite drawing worked to carefully reveal the textures in the surface of the bone and the deeply etched fine lines where the bone plates connect to one another. Once again Susan's delicate touch has done this play of light and dark a fine justice.

Stay tuned for more images of this little skull. Susan is currently working on a watercolour of it from a different angle altogether.

SUSAN HEAL 

Double Hydrangea

Susan worked on this beautiful and unusual bloom this past winter. She's really captured the texture of the flower with great delicacy and care, managing to keep the lacework of veins light and natural. 

For those of you who don't paint, the only way to do this well with watercolour is to paint around the veins, leaving the light areas. You can't paint light over dark with this medium so planning and care are needed to successfully render a subject with light coloured veins. It's a great challenge and one the Susan has met remarkably well.

I've moved in closer to show the delicate bits of colour within the colours. After the initial loose underpainted washes were applied to set the colour of the veins and general areas, deeper colour was built up using dry brush by layering tiny bits of paint to achieve intensity and dimension.

Everything has a thickness, no matter how thin, and depending on how the light falls that thickness will appear either light or dark. You can see the light hitting the edge of the curling petal above showing the thickness as light and on other petals as dark. Attention to details like this is what makes a painting really sing.

SUSAN HEAL

Robin's Egg & Bramble Leaf

A broken robin's egg floating safely to earth in its dried bramble leaf boat...

Painted mostly in drybrush, with little strokes of colour, much like egg-tempera... crisp, clean and clear. This is a close-up view so you can see some of the details... the original composition is the same with a lot more white space around the subject.

SUSAN HEAL

Harry Lauder's Walking Stick

Also known as Corkscrew Hazel, or Corylus avellana 'Contorta'.

Subtle... hard to photograph... beautiful play of shadow and light...

SUSAN HEAL

Brunnera

Susan painted this large leaf in the fall...

We usually see Brunnera in clusters close to the ground, missing the grace of the stem with its gentle curve and the interesting raised-vein pattern under the leaf. 

Painting or drawing something like this can help us to see it with new eyes...

SUSAN HEAL

Corn Flower

These two views of a cornflower were painted together on a single page, the full flower above sits on the left of the page and the dissection below sits on the right side.

This is Susan's first painted dissection, rendered with the clarity and sensitivity that has become a recognizable characteristic of her work.

There were many challenges in this piece and she learned a lot trying to work out the problems, clearing the way for her next painting, set in the same composition and style as this one. 


Red Clover

Clover is such a humble little flower, we don't really see its beauty and the details hidden in its tiny stature.

When the center structure is revealed a whole new appreciation of this sweet-tasting blossom becomes possible, from the sheathes that house the petals to the tubular structure of each individual petal. No wonder the bees spend so much time in teasing out its secrets.

Susan has played honey-bee herself and drawn the best out of this little gem.

SUSAN HEAL

Echeveria

Susan's coloured pencil drawing of a soft, chalky Sempervivum.
Very sensitively modeled; you can see the edges of light on the thickness of the leaves.
Susan painted this first with watercolour but found that coloured pencils were more appropriate to accurately depict the texture and whitish bloom on the fleshy leaves.

SUSAN HEAL

Mirabella Plum Branch

Susan created this soft painting applying watercolour over a very light graphite drawing. Already an accomplish draughtswoman, this is only her second botanical painting!


Mirabella Plums

Here is Susan's first drawing of these lovely little plums from the tree in her garden, dancing lightly over the page. This drawing was done in graphite on BFK Rives, a soft, porous paper with a light tooth to the surface. Paired with Susan's light hand, the chemistry is divine...