About
Canadian painter Susan Hull was born in Halifax, grew up in southern Ontario and has worked and lived in Alberta, Canada since 1987, and Calgary since 1992. Drawing and using oil pastels as a child led to painting as an extracurricular activity during her career as a social worker in corrections. Sue is tremendously grateful to be able to pursue her art career beginning in 2019, taking the 12 week intensive Creative Visionary Program, led by US abstract painter Nicholas Wilton. Confidence, experimentation, practice, mentors, friendship and ongoing learning are the drivers that keep Sue entirely engaged to paint in her home studio in Calgary and to continually utilize local and international workshops to enhance her skills and ideas.
Susan paints in acrylics with mixed media, such as crayons, pencils, collage, and photo transfers. The sense of awe experienced during mountain hikes and river walks influences her representational work, while the desire for play experimentation, freedom and soulful expression drives her to paint abstracts. Consistent in her work is curvy lines, harmonized colours, movement and intriguing viewpoints.
Sue shows work with the Leighton Art Centre, the Calgary Creative Arts Guild, Calgary Community Painters Society and is an Exhibiting Status member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, and member of the Art2life Academy and Mastrius.
Artist Statement
Calgarian Susan Hull creates expressive abstract paintings using acrylics and mixed media, exploring dynamic movement, curvy line work, texture, illusions of depth and sophisticated colour combinations. Susan also paints landscapes as reaction to beautiful hikes and her own photography. She visualizes beyond the substrate surface with the intent to create a sense of the potential and hope around us, the expansiveness, and interconnectedness of all that is.
The lines often lead the viewer on a complex journey of created colour, shapes and unique mark making. Susan is currently working with a particular colour palette and intends to make larger works that are even more expansive and engaging, infused with curiosity and experimentation and refined with thoughtful composition. To combine landscapes or representational images with her fresh abstract approach is always a goal in her practice.
