Suzanne was born and bred in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Amongst the landscape that has spawned some of Englands best known sculptors. Her early years were spent on the squash and tennis courts. Squash being her preferred sport, perhaps expressing her spacial awareness later shown in her sculpture. She has had no formal art training but because of her interest in form she eventually found a night class at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds. Where she learnt basic techniques of casting and construction. It was here that she realised her preference was to carve and where she carved her first small pieces in plaster and alabaster. Interestingly the first piece of plaster carving was a hand holding a squash racket handle.
Probably her earliest sculptural influence was Eduardo Chillida, who she admires to this day. She carved a piece ‘Homage to Chillida’ in alabaster at this time. Following her interest she was one of the earliest members of Yorkshire Sculpture Park Friends (number eleven she thinks!). She spent many hours at YSP particularly when there were sculptors working there. The Italians with their technical measuring methods and the Zimbabweans with their direct carving. The Zimbabwean’s particularly Bernard Takawira had a big influence on her work and the materials she continues to use today.
The Zimbabweans used serpentine, a stone prevelant in Zimbabwe and they carved it directly from a ‘rock’ rather than a cube. The stone has rich subtle colourings (without being too dominant) and is found in a variety of densities from soapy to denser than granite.
The search for serpentine took her to the Lizard in Cornwall. The Lizard is the only place in England where any amount of the stone exists. However getting the stone proved quite a challenge. There is a small industry at Lands End that uses soft serpentine stone for turned bowls, lighthouses etc for the tourist trade, but they are very protective of their supplies. Further inquiries turned up a roadstone quarry of very denser serpentine. A load was eventually secured and the rest is history as they say.It was at this time that Suzanne first secured a studio at Dean Clough in Halifax, where she carved her first pieces of serpentine by hand.
The next major influence on her work came again from YSP. Dan Archer led a stone carving course in the grounds. This was the first of two courses Suzanne attended. She has much to thank him for. She learnt how to deal with large scale work, lifting, splitting and the use of machine tools. She gained the ability to be able to produce anything that could be required.
The search for serpentine had taken Suzanne to Cornwall and inevitably to St Ives. She has continued to visit regularly ever since. There is a similarity between the Yorkshire moorland landscape and the area around St Ives but the st Ives light is much better. She showed her work in the Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives for many years until Henry Gilbert who owned the gallery retired. It was infact Henry Gilbert who suggested she use the Delabole slate which she still uses today. He knew Barbara Hepworth and apparently had introduced her to the slate which she used in quite a few of her pieces.
Since these early days Suzanne has completed many private commissions and exhibited widely across the country. She carved a piece of marble from Barbara Hepworths garden, on the Barbara Hepworth centenary in the garden of Wakefield Art Gallery. The piece is now in the Wakefield collection. She is an ARBS and is the chair of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group.
