Sue Spivey

Artist Details

Artist Name: Sue Spivey
Artist Home Page:
Contact Sue Spivey
View All Sue Spivey Artwork

 

Tuition

Helping others to enjoy making art gives me a lot of pleasure and satisfaction., particularly those who have never drawn or painted before. I always try to send my learners home with a piece of work they have completed - a feeling of intense satisfaction both for them and for me!

I taught for 14 years as a Tutor with adult education, and have extensive experience of teaching all ages and abilities. I have worked in infant, primary and senior schools , running workshops which were music and memory based. I use 'hands-on' practical methods to help students to enjoy their art making, along with some group work.

I also plan and run my own workshops in the local community, using mainly Acrylics and mixed media, using music and memories, as well as landscape, still life and portraiture as my inspriration for making art.

I would be happy to run workshops and other events for clubs, schools ( I am CRB cleared), festivals and other events - please get in touch through my website.

 

Biography

As a synaesthetic artist, my main work is with the visual representation of the forms,shapes, colours and textures of music. This work began when, as a mature student, I graduated from Hull College of Fine Art with my first Degree in Visual Studies in 1990.

As a 'side-effect' of quite severe hearing difficulties, I developed a condition known as synaesthesia - this means that I have an ability to both see and 'feel' as well as hear, music of all kinds, in particular classical music.

Unfortunately I also developed Tinnitus, a condition which fills my head with incessant, and often very dibilitating noises: however, whilst sometimes these two conditions can make life rather difficult, they have also taken me on a varied and fasinating journey of exploration which expresses itself in my creative art work.

Using predominantly Acrylic and and a wide range of mixed media, most of my paintings are concerned with trying to visually translate what I see and feel when I listen to music. I work with musicians, composers, and conductors in situ at concerts as the music is being played. I am Artist in Residence with several orchestras and music studios, and have also worked with Jazz and Brass Band musicians,church organists etc, as well as Vocal choirs and solo performers. Working with music often forges links with personal histories, and makes for some very interesting subject material!

Since graduating with my first degree, I have had several solo and joint exhibitions and am looking to develop this further. I teach painting and drawing to adults, and run taster sessions and workshops for both Adults and children using music as a theme for a variety of interesting projects. I graduated with my second BA hons Degree in Creative Writing in 2008, and my poetry inspires other ideas for painting based around the imagery of themes such as memory and travel.

My native East Riding of Yorkshire, and the beautiful Western Isles of Scotland imspire me to paint and write, using as inspiration the movement of the sea, the vastness of the sky in all weathers,linked with a particular 'essence' of memory and personal experience to create visual imagery

If you would like to see more of my work, please visit my website - the address of which is given on my professional members page.

 

Exhibitions

Joint Exhbitions with colleagues between 1990-2000 including Hull, Scarborough, Leeds and Manchester
Solo Exhibition - Hull Adult Education Centre, Park Avenue Hull, 1998
Work Accepted for Ferens Exhibition Hull 2000/01/03
Solo Exhibition - Beverley Art Gallery 2000
Sole Exhibition - Heritage Centre, Isle of Iona, Western Isle, Scotland 2004
Solo Exhbition, Hessle , East Riding Yorkshire 2007
Solo Exhibition Sewerby Hall, Sewerby, East Yorkshire 2010
Solo Exhbition, The Junction, Goole, 2010
Joint Exhbition, Hedon Nr Hull, Feb 21 - 25 2011
Artist in Residence, Burton Agnes Hall 15th-31 May 2011
Solo Exhbition, Gallery 49, Bridlington, 16th - 26th May 2011
Artist in the Park, Sewerby Hall, Nr. Bridlington, 4 Saturdays June 2011
Exhibiting/Demonstrating, Patchings Nr Nottingham 2011
Solo Exhbition, Bridlington Spa, all of August 2011
Joint Exhbition, Hessle, East Yorkshire, Half Term week October 2011

New - Exhbition at Sledmere House, nr Driffield, July 26th 2012

 

Media

Acrylic Inks, Acrylics, Canvas, Coloured Pencil, Drawing, Gouache, Mixed Media, Oil pastel, Pastels, Pen & Ink, Pencil/Charcoal, Watercolour, Watercolour Pencil

 

Subjects

Abstract, Colour Mixing, Expressionism, Impressionism, Landscape, Seascapes and Water, Skies, Surrealism