About Sue Bates

Sue Bates began painting with no formal art training; but attended courses with Clare Shepherd, Paul Riley, Fiona Peart, Jill Mackay and Janet Whittle.

Sue enjoys looking for colour and pleasing shapes that define her favourite subjects – bold flowers. She does not use pencil in any of her work enjoying the freedom of negotiating on the page until the final picture emerges. Her work has an immediacy and freshness that comes from this technique. She also blends all her edges, so that no lines are drawn in paint, all are edges that are softened to show the detail of the subject.

She spends time exploring the depth of colour in watercolour, she strives for a density of hue without losing the transparent quality on the page. She places certain areas of the image in sharp focus and allows the background to blur but not turn to mud or wallpaper. Sue often paints 4 or 5 versions of her paintings before anything remotely satisfying appears.

Sue paints mainly in Dorset in her gazebo studio, where she can look out on her garden. Trips to Brittany have widened the choice of flowers in season and she has begun a new series beginning with the cosmos and large sunflowers. She has also experimented with seascapes of the Brittany coast line on canvas with a palette knife and thickly applied acrylics.

Last Year Sue was approached by a London agent at MGL Graphics, she has a contract with them and is marketed in the USA and Europe.  A selection of her paintings have been sold under licence for greetings cards, journal covers and other stationery items. This is an exciting new venture!