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Tension, Strength and Fragility
Featuring Life Drawings by Susanne Winter
Emily
January 11, 2025
(Artwork images credited to Susanne Winter)
While Susanne’s, previously featured, colourful, abstract paintings have captured attention for their vibrancy and emotional resonance, there is another side to her artistic practice: life drawing. This quieter, disciplined approach to art is not a departure from her abstract work, but a complementary exercise that informs and deepens it.
Susanne has been attending life drawing classes for years. One of her friends has an artist residency with the Royal Ballet, giving her access to observe the dancers during their classes. Arguably, these are the most beautiful human forms in existence. |
Photo by Hudson Hintze on Unsplash
“I use chalks, charcoal, and inks, then add additional colour with pastels to emphasise certain areas. Sometimes putting washes on the paper beforehand which changes the feel of the work. I came back from a trip to Morocco recently with some lovely dried powdered paints, they are so highly pigmented, they have some amazing colours.” |  Photo by Sarah Richer on Unsplash |
Each drawing is done in one sitting, and Susanne might have anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to capture the figure.
She described the balance between keeping it loose and experimental, but working from a very definite subject. In a life drawing class, you can’t always choose your perspective or control the lighting, which changes throughout the session.
“I need to be productive and completely present when I work. The focus is intense, which I love. You know the model is going to move, and you have to get as much information down onto that piece of paper.”
I love how something so loose can come out of such an intense, time-restricted environment.
“My life drawing has a huge influence on my painting, and my painting influences my life drawing. Life drawing makes me focus more, and my paintings make me more experimental and looser. Like my landscapes, drawing the figure is a constant play with negative space and proportion.” |
Originals £380
Mounted + Framed Originals £480
Prints from original Charcoal, Ink and pastel drawings for sale.
A3 prints £60
A2 prints £85
