The Faces of Nature 14/15

Sue Daniel was born in Hungary in 1948 and came to Montreal during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. After living abroad for many years – Istanbul, England, southern California – she has settled in West Vancouver, Canada.

Sue’s art reflects the same bursting of boundaries and stretch for freedom that shaped her early life. Working in oils she creates drama and colour to evoke contemplation. Her paintings are both calming and full of motion, the bold colours and strong visuals barely contained on the canvas.

Sue Daniel is a fast-rising star, working in oils in her private West Vancouver studio.

Her large-format pieces work equally well in private and public/commercial spaces.

Confident and intuitive brush strokes – and a variety of knives, scrapers and custom made tools – produce a dissonance between the carefully controlled and the spontaneous. At the same time the hours of rubbing and layering of thinned oils convey depth and timelessness. The final bold strokes give each piece vibrancy and presence, and demonstrate her artistic confidence.

Sue’s methodology explores the “control and chance concept” popularized by the artists of the New York School in the ‘50s – the abstract expressionists – where the artist consciously drives the creation process while encouraging and exploiting the random wonders that can occur by taking creative chances. Each subject is discovered and rediscovered in the creation and recreation of the piece; each translucent layer adds to its depth and complexity.

“Painting forces me to self-examine and push out of my comfort zone, and at the same time it sets me free. I hope it does the same for those who look at my work.”