Sightlines - Susan Laughton at Salford Museum & Art Gallery

Sightlines

Susan Laughton a popular exhibitor at Previous Brighton Art Fairs has a show opening this Wednesday at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

The exhibition is inspired by the English Landscape, with paintings by Salford artist, Susan Laughton showing alongside rarely seen unconserved work (selected by Susan) from Salford Museum and Art Gallery’s permanent collection.



The English Landscape has inspired and challenged artists for centuries. Works displayed from Salford’s permanent collection demonstrate the artist’s traditional preoccupation with the picturesque or landscape as a ‘view’. This exhibition illustrates how one contemporary artist has responded to the challenge and created complex work of sensitive simplicity. Work that speaks as much about our changing relationship with the landscape, as it does about the times we live in.

Of her inspiration and painting, Susan Laughton, says:
‘The Northern landscape is one of dramatic, urban sprawl and volatile weather. There is a poetic beauty in rusting metal, distant horizons, time worn stone and changing light. Man made structures impose their presence on the sky: power lines, bridges and lamp posts disrupt the horizon. Sharp edges of construction window frame our perspectives. I capture remembered details observed when out walking or fleeting juxtapositions glimpsed whilst driving, abstract feelings elusive to photography.


Susan’s paintings contrast pared down marks with random scratches, washes of iridescent paint with textured plaster. Sometimes layers are washed away and reapplied many times to capture the essence of the moment. Structured and methodical approaches combined with intuitive reactions allow both careful planning and spontaneous risk taking. A unique combination of artistic control with a sense of, ‘let’s see what happens if’………


Susan worked in architecture for 12 years before returning to college to study art at Bolton University (graduating with a BA(Hons) first class in 2002. She now works full time from a studio at Valley Artists in Waterfoot, Rossendale, Lancashire.

Salford Museum and Art Gallery till 7 June 2009

www.susanlaughton.com
www.valleyartists.co.uk

Salford Museum and Art Gallery
Peel Park
Crescent
Salford
M5 4WU