It takes a lot to stop Sue Fitzgerald from travelling to her places of inspiration. Sue is one of the UK's most accomplished and best-loved still life painters. Rich colour and sumptuous texture burst out of her vivacious canvases. Typically, these paintings are inspired by real destinations: Singapore, Andalusia, Rome and (most often) the artist's beloved Languedoc. So when Sue was recovering from a broken femur (a dancing injury, since you ask), did it stop her? Of course not. Sue was itching to travel. Her previous collection for the Catto came during the pandemic when we were all forced to stay home.
So she retrieved her passport. And brought back these glorious paintings.
The new collection really is Sue Fitzgerald at her best. All of our favourite elements are in place. The shimmering, brilliant colours – those fiery crimsons and inky cobalts. Then there are the textures and patterns. Sue draws inspiration here from fabrics, ceramics, patterns in nature, crumbling walls. She travels far and wide to find these raw materials. And in this collection, she was inspired by floor tiles too – specifically the famous palatial tiles of Andalucia (see Patterns from the Alhambra pictured on our website).
Another familiar Fitzgerald technique on display here is foreshortening. Sue's loose take on perspective takes inspiration from the Nabis painters (Vuillard, Bonnard and Denis) who realised that the 'tilting' technique can give equal weight to every (carefully chosen) object in the composition. Sue says she is fascinated by what this movement achieved and their celebration of pattern against pattern which can be seen in paintings such as Vuillard’s The Striped Blouse. "When we look around that is what we see, a series of patterns and shapes. Our brains make sense of these images,” she says. In this new Catto show, check out Treasures from Cat Street to see how Sue explores this technique.
Over the years Sue has chipped away at the artistic possibility of all the elements in her work. She says she's been helped recently by welcome advances in her raw materials too. Sue paints mostly in acrylic, and has been buoyed by the huge improvement in the medium. "Acrylic was awful when I was art college," she says. "But it's got better and better, and in the last fives years it's improved beyond recognition. It's so versatile. The colours are amazing, but it also supports a kind of transparent effect. It's really helped me to explore new ideas." She cites Coffee Time in the Studio and A Story on a China Pot as two good illustrations of this in the show.
Despite the pull of acrylic, this exhibition also features a rare example of a Sue Fitzgerald watercolour – the lovely White and Blue. And it's not the only stylistic departure. Sunflowers in the Herault Valley and Lunchtime in the Bouzigues explore oil and acrylic as a medium.
Sue Fitzgerald's desire to keep experimenting is laudable. She graduated from York and Sunderland Colleges of Art in the sixties and has been exhibiting with The Catto Gallery for over 35 years. Even after all this time she continues to push the boundaries of her craft with enthusiasm and delight.
