This new collection of paintings reflect the artist’s own feelings about the geopolitical disruption brought by Brexit and Trump as well as her nomadic inner voice.
Francesca Gavin, leading art curator of Soho House Group among other notable art collections, describes the work as follows: “Composition, structure and the application of paint are all things that are innately part of her process almost to the level of subconscious. These elements fade in contrast to her focus the feelings she tries to replicate or express through her medium. The works at first appear like landscapes – the road moving through the canvas, the eye following the bend of the yellow line on the asphalt. Yet there is always a figurative element.”
Initially discovered and exhibited by ex-Sotheby’s Chairman Henry Wyndham, Suzy Murphy’s work has been quietly acquired by many high profile private and public art collections worldwide.
Suzy Murphy’s atelier at the Chelsea Studios was one of the favourite spaces of the late writer A.A Gill, as well as that of many of London’s literary and creative set. It was Gill who suggested to Suzy that Picasso’s words be written in charcoal on the studio wall; “to draw you need to close your eyes and sing...” whilst working from her studio during life drawing sessions over several years.
The artistic journey of Suzy Murphy started early in a 60’s tenement block of London’s East End before she moved to the expansive plains of North America with her young mother. Painting was the medium that Suzy used to express her emotions throughout her nomadic childhood, although a shelf stacked with her black A6 Romney notebook diaries also document, in both words and sketches, her creative thinking and process. It is the impressions from her early years, and the memories and experiences of those days, that have cemented her love of road journeys and the places where she feels least constrained.
Suzy Murphy’s latest work continues on the path of feelings recalled, with America’s natural landscape still a powerful theme that conjures images from the past and present. The artist says; “Landscape is about the land. My landscapes are self portraits. They are really about me and what I feel”.