Suzannah reflects on the intersection of landscape and memory, examining how formative experiences shape perception and how mark-making fosters a therapeutic connection to place.
Suzannah is a mother, artist, community arts worker, and farmer living in the Dungog Shire on the traditional land of the Gringai people, along the Dooribang (Williams River) in New South Wales. Originally from Wingham, she spent nearly a decade in outback South Australia as a community arts worker, including roles as a Regional Arts Development Officer for Country Arts SA and Artistic Director of D’faces of Youth Arts in Whyalla. It was there that she began seriously creating art, drawing inspiration from the arid landscapes that continue to influence her practice, even as she now explores the riparian environments near her home. Suzannah has had three solo exhibitions, including work from her Grindell’s Hut Residency in the Northern Flinders Ranges, and has been a finalist in numerous prestigious art prizes, including the Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, Basil Sellers Art Prize, Fleurieu Biennale, and Whyalla Art Prize. She has won several awards, including the Dungog Art Prize (2022), pastel and drawing sections of the Scone Art Prize (2022, 2023), and most recently, the acquisitive Viola Bromley Prize for Painting at Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre. Suzannah has lived with profound unilateral deafness and shares her life with her partner, two sons, two dogs, a flock of sheep, and an abundance of local wildlife, including koalas, platypuses, and resident pythons.
Education
Bachelor of Art Theory (Honours), College of Fine Arts, University of NSW.
Grad.Dip.Ed (Secondary), Visual Arts, University of Western Sydney
Grad. Cert. Arts Management, University of Technology Sydney
Suzannah attended private classes with Artist, Stephen James (MFA, College of Fine Arts, UNSW) in Branxton and Newcastle NSW. (2011-2013)
Solo exhibitions
A Personal Ecology
Newcastle Art Space, Hamilton East, NSW 1st – 18th October 2015
Long Sleep Plain
Yarta Purtli Gallery, Port Augusta Cultural Centre, Port Augusta, SA
March 5th – April 4th 2009 – Part of the Desert Fringe 2009
The Quiet Light
Works from the Grindell’s Hut Residency , Fountain Gallery, Port Augusta 3rd – 26th May 2007
Selected Group Exhibitions
Suzannah regularly exhibits with the artist collective Dungog by Design and Gresford Community Gallery, NSW
Viola Bromley Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Muswellbrook NSW 2024.
Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill City Regional Gallery, NSW 2024
Fleurieu Biennale, Finalist, Fleurieu Art House, McLaren Vale, SA, 2024.
Basil Sellers Art Prize, Finalist, Basil Sellers Exhibition Centre, NSW, Moruya, 2019
Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, 2018
Burrinja Climate Change Biennale, Finalist, Burrinja Cultural Centre,Upwey, VIC, February 2018
City of Whyalla Art Prize, Finalist, Middleback Cultural Centre, October 2017
Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, July 2016
Well Spring, curated by Stephen James; Cessnock Regional Gallery, March 2015
City of Whyalla Art Prize, Finalist, Middleback Cultural Centre, 2013
Marked – Drawing Now, Cessnock Regional Gallery, NSW 28th Feb – 24th March 2013.
Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW, 2012
Love Vomited, joint show with Fran Callen, August 2009, Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide
Waverley Art Prize, Finalist, NSW 2008
Outback Art Prize, Finalist, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW, 2007
Hummock Hill Art Prize, Whyalla Art Gallery, SA November 2006
Port Pirie Art Prize, Port Pirie Regional Gallery, SA August 2006
New Art 6’, University of SA, Whyalla Campus Gallery, August – September 2006
Prizes/Residency
Winner of the Viola Bromley Prize for Painting, 2024, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre
Winner of the Drawing Prize of the Scone Art Prize 2023 (Judge; Artist Trevor Weekes)
Winner of the Dungog Art Prize 2022 (Judge; Elissa Emerson, Director of the Muswelbrook Regional Arts Centre)
Winner of the Pastel Section, Scone Art Prize 2022, (Judge; Elissa Emerson, Director of the Muswelbrook Regional Arts Centre)
Merit Award, Port Pirie Art Prize 2006, Port Pirie Regional Gallery, SA
Ist prize: Category; ‘Any other medium other than watercolour’, Hummock Hill Art Prize 2006,
Whyalla Art Gallery
Grindell’s Hut Artist Residency, Gammon Ranges (Northern Flinders Ranges) for four weeks during November 2006. Supported and funded by Port Augusta City Council, Northern Regional Development Board, Fountain Gallery and National Parks and Wildlife Services