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Opening September 17th
A LIFE OF SEEING: SUE SNEDDON 1953-2022
A Retrospective
A Life of Seeing: Sue Sneddon 1953-2022, a retrospective exhibition, opens on September 17th, with a reception from 5 to 7 pm. The show continues through October 29.
Sue Sneddon was one of Craven Allen Gallery’s most popular artists, with 14 shows over 25 years. Her fifteenth show of original work was in the planning stages when she passed away unexpectedly of cancer in January of this year.
A Life of Seeing features works from throughout Sue Sneddon’s decades-long career, including works for sale. Collectors are generously sharing special artworks for this retrospective, along with stories and memories of Sneddon.
Sneddon’s land- and seascapes convey the quiet grandeur of the natural world in paintings ranging from intimate pastels to large oils on canvas. In her words, “Sometimes the smallest landscape can evoke the larger setting, the feeling of the expansiveness of the environment. The whorl of a shell, a hurricane, a galaxy—how similar these shapes are. How odd, I’ve always thought, are the square and rectangular borders placed on two-dimensional art. There are choices to be made on how to convey the reverence and emotion inside these boundaries.”
Her passion was coastal North Carolina, and she was known for her unusual perspectives, as in the oil Should I Be Out Here? from 1995. A wave dominates all but a small corner in the upper left of the painting, where the sky is glimpsed, giving the viewer a visceral sense of the ocean’s power.
Sneddon grew up in Pennsylvania, and moved to Durham in 1976. She exhibited widely; her work is in numerous public and private collections. In 2003, she fulfilled another goal, building a home and studio in Shallotte, NC. Sneddon is featured in Liza Roberts’ forthcoming book about North Carolina artists, Art of the State.