Susan Dorothea White facts for kids

Susan Dorothea White (born 10 August 1941) is an Australian artist and writer. She creates art that tells stories about the natural world and human life. Her work often uses humor and irony to show her strong feelings about human rights and fairness for everyone. She also wrote a book called Draw Like da Vinci in 2006.

Early Life and Art Training

Susan White was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1941. She grew up in Broken Hill, a mining town in the Australian outback. In 1954, she started boarding school in Adelaide. During school holidays, she would go back to Broken Hill to paint and draw.

She had her first art show in 1957. In 1958, while still in school, she began taking art jobs for money. She also took drawing classes on Saturdays with artist James Cant. From 1959 to 1960, Susan studied art at the South Australian School of Art. There, she learned about art history and different skills like perspective drawing. She also learned how to make prints using a method called lithography.

Susan won many awards at the annual Broken Hill art shows from 1959 to 1962. She was one of the first members of the Willyama Art Society. She showed her work in their exhibitions in Broken Hill and Adelaide.

In 1960, Susan moved to Sydney to study art full-time at the Julian Ashton Art School. She also took evening classes at the National Art School to learn sculpture and drawing. At age 20, in 1962, she had her first solo art show in Broken Hill. This show had 60 artworks, including oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, and prints. People praised her work, saying she showed the Australian countryside with fresh eyes.

Painting Styles and Themes

Susan White's first paintings were often oils on board or watercolours. In the 1970s, she started using acrylic paints on wood panels instead of oils. She developed a special way of painting. This method involved putting on thin layers of acrylic paint. She would lightly sand the wood between each layer. This helped her create soft color changes and smooth tones.

Her more recent paintings explore personal experiences and current topics. She paints them very carefully on wood panels. For example, she painted a self-portrait after brain surgery. This painting shows her dazed in a tilted hospital room. It is a very powerful and emotional artwork. Some of her acrylic paintings also include collage, which means adding different materials to the painting.

One of Susan's most famous large paintings is The First Supper. She painted it in 1988 during the Australian Bicentenary celebrations. This painting shows her creativity and her care for human issues. It was shown in art shows in Amsterdam and Germany. People talked a lot about it because it shows Jesus as an Aboriginal Australian woman. Her "disciples" are women from all over the world.

In 2012, Susan painted The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Freeman. This painting is a modern version of Rembrandt's famous work, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. Susan's painting shows the scene in a modern university lab. The people watching are shown as skeletons and anatomical models. This painting was first shown in Venice, Italy, in 2013.

Sculpture Work

Susan White studied sculpture at art schools in South Australia and Sydney. She works with many different materials. These include sandstone, marble, wood, bronze, and mixed-media. Mixed-media means using different materials together.

One of her sculptures is Companion for Brancusi's 'Young Man'. She carved it from Queensland maple wood. She made it as a response to another sculpture called Torso of a Young Man by Constantin Brâncuși.

Susan's mixed-media sculptures often combine fabrics with carved Huon pine. This special wood was saved from Tasmania. After her art show in New York in 1998, a collection bought her mixed-media sculpture It Cuts Both Ways. It was then shown for a long time at the National Building Museum.

She has shown her bronze sculptures in Geneva and Nice. Her mixed-media works have been in the Florence Biennale and the Venice Biennale. In 2005, a collection in New York asked her to create a large bronze sculpture. It was called Stretching the Imagination. In 2017, Susan won first prize at an art show in Sydney. Her winning sculpture was To Cut Both Ways. It was made of chrome-plated bronze and scissors. This artwork explores the idea that our actions can affect others in the same way they affect us.

Printmaking and Drawing

Susan White is also a skilled printmaker. Since 1960, she has made many different types of prints. These include etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, and linocuts. She often prints her own artworks. Many of her early prints were made by hand using a wooden wringer. For example, her 1986 lithograph The Front Verandah has 15 different colors. This artwork comments on the Chernobyl disaster. The National Gallery of Australia has 27 of her prints in its collection.

Drawing is very important to Susan's art. She is a talented draughtswoman. She uses many different materials for her drawings. These include pen and ink, ballpoint pens, brushes, crayons, chalk, pastels, conté crayons, and charcoal. Since 2005, she has also tried new drawing methods. These include silverpoint and goldpoint, and drawing over inkjet prints.

From 1982 to 1989, Susan taught drawing classes. In 2000, she helped start anatomy drawing workshops. These workshops were at the University of New South Wales (School of Medical Sciences). She sometimes gives talks about anatomy in art. She has made many drawings from anatomical specimens. This work led to her large painting The Anatomy Lesson in 2012.

Her Book: Draw Like da Vinci

In 2005, Susan White wrote and illustrated a book called Draw Like da Vinci. The book has over 150 pictures. It teaches seven main drawing rules that Leonardo da Vinci used. It also explains his tools and techniques, like silverpoint. Susan looks closely at Leonardo's famous artworks. These include The Last Supper, Ginevra de' Benci, and The Virgin of the Rocks. She helps readers understand the skills behind these masterpieces.

Exhibitions and Awards

Susan White began showing her art in 1957. Her first solo show was in Broken Hill in 1962. She has had important solo shows in New York, Cologne, Amsterdam, Munich, Adelaide, and Sydney. She has also represented Australia in over 60 international art shows. These shows were in countries like the US, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and China.

She has also shown her work in group exhibitions in many cities. These include Washington, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Berlin, Nice, New York, Amsterdam, and Geneva. In Australia, her work has been shown in major art prizes. These include the Wynne Prize, the Sulman Prize, the Portia Geach Memorial Award, and the Blake Prize.