Susan Diamond, artist.

Subliminal messages from Susan Diamond

Bevali Francis talks to artist Susan Diamond about her book Subliminal Messages, a collection of paintings she has produced in the last two years.

Susan now resides in St Leonards but is originally from America. She has always loved drawing from a young age, becoming serious about it when studying for an MA in fashion at the School of Fashion in Boston. Her work at this time was mostly fashion illustrations of her designs.

Susan started painting on canvas when she was offered a space upstairs in the Sir Richard Steele pub in Camden. She then moved to a studio in the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, where she worked on a collection called “Susan Diamond’s All New Adoption Agency”. The exhibition was shown at the infamous Decima Gallery in Bermondsey where it caused quite a stir.

Not only was Susan becoming a recognised artist at this time, but she was also busy running the fashion label Charles of London with her partner Mark Charles. It wasn’t until she moved to St Leonards five years ago that painting moved to the forefront of her career, alongside the Susan Diamond shop in Kings Road.

Now Susan solely concentrates on painting and has had many amazing shows, including at the Berlin Ironic Gallery and London’s Never Fade gallery in Soho. She has had many exhibitions in both Hastings and St Leonards, at the Dragon Bar, Whistle Trago, Seed and the St Leonards Pub. Some very exciting prospects for future shows, in cities such as Prague and New York, are being finalised.

Susan Diamond’s book

Susan’s very latest venture is to bring her work from the last three years together. Her acrylic canvases of silver, gold, black and fluorescent paint are oozing with attitude. Susan describes her painting as “Punk Picasso spat alien figures, shrouded amidst futuristic landscapes spreading subliminal messages across gallery walls and homes.”

Collecting all her work together and putting it into one volume means the body of work from the last three years can be seen together, as galleries are not big enough to display all the pieces and many of the original works are now sold.

Preview of work in Susan Diamond’s book.

In book format people can now see the collection together and spend time on really studying each piece and working out what the subliminal messages are. Each painting has a true meaning, and these are not always apparent at first. Diamond wants people to look deeper into her pictures and a book format means they can spend time doing this in the comfort of their own homes.

The book, will be launched in Hastings at the Dragon Bar on 1 November and at The Stella Dore Gallery on the 7th December from 6pm. At the launch there will also be five new paintings on show.

To get the flavour of Susan’s paintings, you can see some of her work at Seespray Gallery on Queens Road, Hastings, and Pearl & Queenie, Marine Court, St Leonards. Her work can also be seen on her website or on Instagram at susan_diamond77.

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