I am AccessArt: Sue Gough
Sue Gough
Sue graduated in Fine Art with honours as a mature student in 1995. It was not until 2005, when she and her husband moved to North Yorkshire that she was able to think seriously about developing her career as an artist. Unfortunately a serious autoimmune illness put these plans on hold, during which time she also lost four of her best friends. Now fully fit, for the past two years Sue has been working hard, reflecting these experiences positively in her artistic practice. She had her first solo exhibition this year and is continuing to develop work on the themes of passing time, memory, loss and repetition.
I am AccessArt by Sue Gough…
My current work explores ideas concerning the passing of time, memory and loss. This is a serious subject, but, whereas much earlier work was dark and brooding, this recent body of drawings and paintings is lighter in tone, more positive and optimistic in its message and outlook.
The work is multi layered, full of gesture and mark making. The tally mark motif I feature in many of the works is a device for expressing the passage of time, the monotony of daily life, repetition and obsession and is a way of building up the surface of each piece.
The work is concerned with the cycle of life and the human condition. References to the landscape and the seasons provide the colours and textures, while the tally marks create the grids and structure.
Many of the drawings include layers of marks and scribbles, asemic text that I call “secret writing”, as well as actual words and sometimes, collage. I leave spaces within the work that allude to lost loved ones, these are “the departed” ones of the titles of many drawings.
These drawings were the starting point for the current paintings. They hold the key to the theme, mixing metaphors of textile structure and the landscape’s seasonal changes as I make them.
I have relished the opportunity to draw on several pieces at once that moving in to a new studio just over a year ago has afforded. Drawing has been the starting point for this body of work; the first ones were quite small, in a cheap sketchbook that I just happened to have to hand when I began and which I compulsively filled quite quickly. Since then, (the very end of 2011) I have continued to work on a variety of scales, on paper and in books, allowing myself to explore the theme, to see where it can take me and where I can take it.
I intend to continue with this theme until I can no longer produce work that reflects it. I usually have drawings and paintings on the go at the same time; I move from one painting to another, while one dries or if it requires some thought about what needs doing to it for the next session; and from a painting to drawings. This enables me to develop new ways of expressing my ideas within the theme, to keep my response flexible and fresh.
I am preparing to make a series of prints later this summer that will combine mono printing, collagraph and screen printing to produce some multi layered pieces and I am very much looking forward to spending some time exploring my ideas in this way. Later on I will approach some print making workshops I know of with a view to developing some etchings, which will require more specialist equipment than I have in my studio. My old mangle is OK for relief printing meanwhile!
The fine balance between logic and instinct is part of the dualism that has fascinated me since I began my career; I believe that the abstract elements of my work can express the ‘unsayable’ more successfully than pure figuration can. So many words are required to express something complex that a combination of colour, gesture and mark can convey to a viewer in a short time of looking. As has been said by many different people, many times, “painting can express things words can’t”.
I have included an activity here for creating layered images which you may like to try.
Please contact Sue at sue.l.gough@btinternet.com if you are interested in discussing a workshop, talk, exhibiting or purchasing any of her work
www.suegough.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/SueGoughArtist
http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/myProjects
Exhibitions:
2014:
March 17th – April 11th, “SKETCH 2013”, touring to Plymouth College of Art
Jan – Feb, “SKETCH 2013”, touring to Black Swan Arts Centre, Frome, Somerset.
2013:
Sept. 2013 – Oct 2013, “SKETCH 2013”, Rabley Drawing Centre, Marlborough, Wilts.
March 29th – April 28th, “Marking Time”. Solo exhibition, The Gallery, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton le Hole, North, Yorkshire.
23rd February – 28th April, Ferens Open, Ferens Gallery, Hull.
29th January – 25th February. International Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham. 2012: September. “The Great North Art Show”, Ripon Cathedral. Open submission.
Sue Gough: Making a Layered Drawing | AccessArt: Visual Arts Teaching, Learning & Practice
August 22, 2013 @ 6:02 pm
[…] I am AccessArt: Sue Gough […]
Pat Carney-Ceccarelli
September 18, 2013 @ 8:40 pm
Oh I am enjoying Sue Gough’s work! I am touched by her relating to time, loss and her way thru the creative process to access a future. Haunting layered work. I have been avoiding marking the passing of some of my friends who have died recently and to a certain extent the everyday dying and re birthing of the self. many thanks to Sue and thank you to AccessArt for showing her work.
Sue Gough
September 18, 2013 @ 9:43 pm
I am so glad that my work has communicated with you Pat! I have found that working hard at my drawing and painting, the obsession of mark making and repetitive quality of the work has become quite meditative and when my thoughts are wandering, the meanings within the works have expanded.
Best wishes,
Sue
Emma Davies
September 19, 2013 @ 3:04 pm
Dear Sue,
These works are wonderful and have so much resonance. The delicate layering of colour and marks. Hypnotic – and by how you describe how you work and the reasoning behind it I can imagine that it is perhaps a theraputic excercise – repetative motions, a rhthym of working that gives structure and that also delves and searches gently.
I shall be looking you up on FB and A-N as I am on there and have a blog also! I am also on here talking about projects that involve making my own sketchbooks.
Very inspirational work,
Best Wishes
Emma
Sue Gough
September 23, 2013 @ 9:48 pm
Thank you so much Emma, I really appreciate your thoughts and kind words. It has been therapeutic up to a point, but the creative process has stretched me in terms of my thinking and process. I have found the AN community to be really interesting and supportive; I shall look you up too, as well as on Access Art!
Best wishes,
Sue
Kiera O'Toole
September 25, 2013 @ 1:17 am
Dear Sue,
Your work is beautiful, inspirational and thought provoking.
Kiera
Sue Gough
September 30, 2013 @ 5:27 pm
Thank you Kiera, I really appreciate that! We artists often spend so much time on our own, it is lovely when our work receives such lovely responses from people.
Best wishes,
Sue
See the AccessArt Stars! | AccessArt: Visual Arts Teaching, Learning & Practice
September 25, 2013 @ 11:59 am
[…] in sharing both her creative practice and activities which others can try. Sue was our first I am AccessArt artist and we are sure her work will inspire many. It will be great for teachers to show her work […]
Sheila Ceccarelli
September 30, 2013 @ 2:51 pm
Sue,
I’d never heard the word ‘asemic’ before and now have googled it and am fascinated by the idea (my six year old daughter is still able to do it but I fear I may have lost the skill along the way!). I’ve looked with great interest at your generous exercise, sharing the process and would like to share it with my teenage students tomorrow evening. I love the idea of layering and covering text as well. I’ll let you know how we do – but in anticipation thank you!
Sheila (AccessArt)
Sue Gough
September 30, 2013 @ 5:25 pm
Hi Sheila,
We do all lose certain spontaneous acts or skills as we grow up; I think part of being an artist is tapping back into those instincts.
Thank you for your lovely comments, I hope the activity is a success with your teenagers – there is no reason why it shouldn’t be. In my experience, once students of any age understand the steps within a particular exercise, they go on to create wonderful and individual responses. They often exceed our expectations, which is really exciting!
Best wishes,
Sue
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 3, 2013 @ 2:54 pm
Sue – I have to thank you for the most incredible session. We actually did a very simple version of your suggested exercise – and i would like to make more time for the layered exercise.
I introduced teenagers to the word asemic and showed them your work.
I also happened to have a wonderful example of my own to show them of asemic art done by my 5 year old daughter – she ‘wrote’ a long narrative on a long, thin piece of paper, long ways down – the strange proportion of large text to the length of the paper got me thinking about the shape of paper as well as ‘text’ as an expression – and also placement of that paper.
I’m starting to write my post now and amazed and excited by the beautiful images produced – which never would have come to being had you not shared your process so generously with AccessArt. Many, many thanks!
Sheila
Sue Gough
October 3, 2013 @ 5:27 pm
I wish I could have been there to share the excitement! So pleased it went well. Please send e a link to your post when you have finished it.
Best wishes,
Sue
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 3, 2013 @ 2:56 pm
One teenager produced this stunning piece of work.
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 3, 2013 @ 2:56 pm
By Jasmine. 16.
Sue Gough
October 3, 2013 @ 5:26 pm
Wow! That is a very dynamic piece, well done Jasmine! Thanks for sharing Sheila.
Sue
Paula Briggs
October 3, 2013 @ 2:59 pm
Wonderful I love those red smears – they speak volumes!
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 10, 2013 @ 10:06 am
Hi Sue, Just to let you know that the post is ready to see:
/asemic-writing-expressive-mark-making-through-invented-text-2/
Thanks again for your inspiration!
Hope things are going well for you.
Best wishes,
Sheila.
Paula Briggs
October 10, 2013 @ 12:40 pm
Well worth a look! I love the way some of the images are posted on the wall and become almost sculptural – this could easily be used in a three dimensional way… think 3 d asemic text!
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 10, 2013 @ 12:45 pm
yes – i did feel that given more time some students would very naturally moved into installation art. They were very spontaneous and open in the way they responded. Also – amazed me how totally different all the artwork produced was.
Sue Gough
October 10, 2013 @ 7:49 pm
I have just looked at the whole post for the first time. Wonderful responses by your students Sheila, I am really bowled over by the work they have produced. I was particularly impressed with Ellas work on torn paper and the way she bagan to relate it to the space by putting a piece into the corner of the room. Adam’s work with the folded paper intrigued me as well, and I found myself mentally preparing some work of my own, that would fold over itself and hang within a space. So thank you to all your students, I am learning from them as well as they from me!
Very best wishes,
Sue
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 10, 2013 @ 8:32 pm
Thank you Sue for your lovely response. I will pass the message on to my students.