The rush nursing chair has been in the artist’s possession since she was a teenager. It has followed her wherever she has moved, from Durban to Cape Town and is now still with her in the UK. “It is a link to my personal stories and part of my ongoing history. It is beyond being just a chair where I have my coffee each morning.” Rush Nursing Chair is painted on canvas using oil paints. It is framed with a simple white-stained pine edging. The image size is 80 x 55 cm but with the frame is 83 x 58 cm.
Rush Nursing Chair
Additional information
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
|---|---|
| Year | 2022 |
| Original / Edition | Original work of art |
| Size | 83 x 58 cm |
Description
Susan Erskine-Jones was born near Cape Town and grew up in the shadow of Table Mountain where she studied painting and printmaking. Since making the UK her home for the last twenty-five years she has increasingly explored the themes of time, memory and identity.
She believes people respond to the familiar through the window of their personal history. The images she chooses act as an emotional vehicle to other times and places evoking those small but significant memories. These observations provide the springboard for her artwork.
The finished piece evolves through a process of building up and stripping down shapes and their relationships to one another. It is not enough to just describe the forms that have sparked the associations but she uses the quality of her marks and choices of colour to open out the visual poetry of the subject.
Susan builds up the image through layers creating familiar scenes gently infused with a sense of melancholia and timelessness suggesting what is missing – a human presence that has passed out of view.
‘Familiar objects, when looked at anew, can trigger memories and associations. I find these overlooked subjects compelling to explore because of the triggers they set off in each of us.’
