Susan Wilson

BIOGRAPHY

Susan Wilson was born in Dalry, Galloway, Scotland. She graduated in Fine Art from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1974, receiving the Hatton Prize for painting in the same year. She continued in further education for the next decade, studying Painting and Printmaking at Edinburgh College of Art, a Masters in Art history at the Unviersity of Edinburgh, and Bookbinding at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.

She was a Member of Dundee Printmakerws Workshop from 1983 to its closure, and was a working printmaker at DCA Print Studio from 1999. She is currently a Member of Edinburgh printmakers. She was a founding member of PrintRoom Dundee, and has exhibited regularly in Scotland and abroad.

Her artistic practice, since graduation, has been based mainly within the discipline of etching, the principal inspiration being landscape - its geology and fossil record, its surface patterns, and its relics. Recent etchings also demonstrate her interest in plant life (including vegetables), its oddities and demise, and the unusual characteristics of found leaves.

In addition to her work in etching, an important aspect of her work has been the collaborations with poets and writers, notably the Hirta Portfolio, with Bill Duncan, about the history, culture and evacuation of the island of St Kilda; ‘blots’ with Colin Herd for The Written Image, a joint venture between The Scottish Poetry Library and Edinburgh Printmakers; and ‘One old onion and other poems’ with the poet Jenny Elliott. The resulting books and folios of prints and poems were all handprinted and handmade.