SUE SNEDDON
Toward the end of this body of work I entered new territory--life without my father. As I was listing all of these places where water flows, I realized it was Dad who was my first teacher of how being near water can bring a deep breath and a sigh, a relaxed smile, and the joy of being in a moment. This body of work includes a journey from the stream in my childhood neighborhood in Uniontown, PA, to the confluence of the Shallotte River, Intracoastal Waterway, and the Atlantic Ocean of my new home. Since the sunset after his passing, I have been a bit obsessed with a favorite spot I shared with him during his years on Hilton Head Island. Not many think of Hilton Head for this kind of undeveloped natural beauty. It is the spot my sisters and I went to when we needed to hold on to each other and have our sunset farewell. It is the spot I took my friends to after his memorial service. We were going to watch another sunset and the full moon rising in total eclipse, but it was too cloudy. There was still magic there, and later we watched the moon climb through rows of pillow-like clouds. Between the total lunar eclipses of March 3 and August 28 I was painting and drawing this spot over and over again. I have tried to find all my sketches from this spot where Fish Hall Creek meets Port Royal Sound on the corner of the Atlantic Ocean. The title piece of this exhibition is from this location at about mid-tide. While painting once again the curves and lines left by the receding tide, I said to myself, “These are the stages of letting go. It will well up again, fill with memory, and be released again into the deep blue sea.” I have finally made my way to the sea. The journey has been filled with streams, creeks, rivers, puddles, lagoons, lakes, sounds, and oceans. Maybe your toes have touched the water on some of these same shores. Locations which inspired this work include the Eno Shallotte Rivers, North Carolina; the Youghiogheny River, Pennsylvania; the Colorado River, Arizona; the Rogue River, Oregon; Lopez Island, Washington; the Navarro River, California; and Fish Hall Creek, South Carolina.
ABOUT SUE SNEDDON Sue has been painting and drawing since her first memory, with inspiration and encouragement from a family where creativity was valued highly (her mother and three aunts are all artists). Beyond the usual childhood media of crayon, pencil, watercolor and tempera, Sue also began working with pastel around the age of ten. This led to years of experimentation and development of a signature style which includes her use of pastel in mixed media. During four years of art school Sue had studios in almost all areas of the visual arts, with independent studies in portraiture and figure drawing. She found no comfort in oil painting until one glorious 1978 day in the Atlantic Ocean, when it became clear to her how she should paint, how she could begin to fully explore this medium. Sue now works in oil, pastel, pencil, gouache, a mixture of the last three, and occasionally in watercolor, ink, and acrylic. This variety of media gives her the ability to choose the one most appropriate to each piece, to each vision. The end result can range from the realistic to the surrealistic to the abstract. And she is still evolving---“My techniques are never stagnant because I am always learning new things, mostly from surprises, mistakes, and experimentation. And there will never be enough time to capture all the subject matter that I’m attracted to.” A love of and reverence for the natural world suffuses Sue’s work, and she is well-known for her portrayal of ocean-related themes. Landscapes, seascapes, and large studies of shells have dominated her work in the past 20 years, but a recent rediscovery of her figure and portraiture studies from art school may have rekindled her interest in this area. However Sue says that “Nothing moves me more than standing where the power of the ocean meets the softness of the sand on the shore. The combination of sky, water and wet sand, especially on North Carolina’s east/west-running beaches, will always inspire me.” Sue Sneddon grew up in Uniontown, PA and graduated with a B.S. in Art Education from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Her love of the ocean began with childhood vacations spent at South Carolina beaches. She moved to Durham, North Carolina in 1976, and began her exploration of the North Carolina coast, including visits to every NC beach, from Corolla to Sunset, and annual (since 1979) Fall painting trips to the Bogue Banks. In 2003 Sue moved to Shallotte, NC with a studio looking out across the tidal marsh to the Shallotte River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Sue has been exhibiting in group and one-person shows since 1979, and she has been a full-time painter since February 1984. Born: Uniontown, PA - September 7, 1953 Graduated: B.S. in Art Education, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, 1975 Resides: Shallotte, NC since 2003 One-Person Exhibitions - since 1979 - numbering 25 as of November 2007 Two-Person Exhibitions, including: “Natural Rhythm” and “Prayer for the Planet,” with Nance Lee Sneddon (sister) “As We See It,” with Lilli Sneddon (mother) |