Susan Spencer Hayter: Shale Shuffle

Shale Shuffle Monoprint on Somerset Paper 24cm x 18cm

About Susan Spencer Hayter

Having worked and studied previously as a Biologist and in education, Susan combines a passion for the natural world and environmental issues with artistic concerns, in order to explore the boundaries between the two.

The main body of work has arisen following research, at the Natural History Museum, into Sea Lilies or ‘crinoids’, a group of marine organisms with a plant-like structure, inhabiting oceans worldwide for over 500 million years. Feeding on oil-rich plankton, crinoids are particularly pertinent to current concerns regarding pollution and fossil fuels: their fossilised remains are often used as indicators in oil exploration. Referencing both scientific and artistic traditions in combining close observational studies with paintings and prints, the artist hopes to awaken a sense of awe and wonder towards the natural world as well as reflection upon the challenges it faces.

Intimate works, painted in oil on gilded gessoed panels, are made using the traditional labour-intensive techniques of sacred Byzantine icons. They pay homage, instead, to crinoids, as part of the fragile world.

The prints refer to both living and fossilised crinoids forms and the historical use of this medium in making scientific records, whilst exploring a variety of techniques used as a means of expression. This takes a more romantic path in the series of monoprints, devoted to the environmental fragility of these creatures.

Susan Spencer graduated in Fine Art Painting from Wimbledon School of Art in 2006 and currently paints in London.

Delivery

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