Susi Bellamy creates vibrant, colourful interiors based on original and unique artwork painted in the studio, and hand marbled paper designs using traditional techniques. Her artwork is inspired by her great love of colour, her background as a fashion editor and her time working and living in Florence. Susi has an MA in Fine Art from Northumbria University and her work can be found in collections internationally. She now works from Cobalt Studios in the Ouseburn, Newcastle. Further highlighting her passion for colour, Susi is also the chairman of the Colour Collective UK.
Using acrylic paint, Susi's atmospheric abstract paintings suggest landscape and pattern. She responds to the negative spaces and streaks left by the rough surface of her trowel, giving order to something that appears at random.
Inspired by her time living in Florence she couldn't help but be inspired by the Renaissance city and the skills of the local artisans. As she stacks layers and strata, each painting is allowed a certain element of evolutionary freedom within the context of her vision.
At a certain point, the paint starts to take over, it starts to move and then within each painting is the suggestion of a possibility for the next one. Once completed, the paintings created on a wooden surface are sometimes cropped into squares and then edited down to smaller works.
It was then viewing them all lined up on shelving in the studio which originally inspired the idea of creating a collection of cushions.
Rich in texture and subtle mark makings, the designs are digitally transferred to luxurious velvet, crisp cotton, natural linen and silk as well as to wallpaper. This high quality printing process harnesses the rich texture of the artwork onto the surface and emphasises the dynamism and depth of her designs.
She attributes her ability to see, create, edit and compose to her days as a fashion editor for Conde Nast Publications in London. Standing behind the camera of some of photography's greats, such as David Bailey and Norman Parkinson, she perfected the art of creating visual images for the magazine world, a skill that has been indispensable to her development as a painter.
The designs feature rich texture and subtle mark making created in Susi's paintings and papers are digitally transferred to luxurious velvet, crisp cotton, natural linen and silk as well as to wallpaper. This high quality printing process harnesses the rich texture of the artwork onto the surface and emphasises the dynamism and depth of her designs.
Susi Bellamy’s collection is made in England from start to finish using the highest quality materials. Each design punctuates any interior with flashes of visual impact in a range of colour combinations. The designs work in conjunction with each other to create a maximalist explosion of colour, or individually as a statement piece to add a striking colour accent to any room. Their combination of uniqueness, colour and vibrancy will impact any interior in the same way as a piece of artwork.