Wealden Times | WT163 | September 2015 | Education supplement inside

Above: Suzanne and Tim’s daughter’s room is a sweet, light-filled space
to submit works.” She was amazed when all her paintings
sold. “They were kiddie paintings really and very naive – to
say the least!” she laughs. That first experience has grown
into a passion and since then she hasn’t stopped, her style
developing as her confidence has grown. Husband Tim
is also very supportive, making frames for the artwork.
Suzanne’s paintings are mainly local views through the
seasons: “I love this time of the year,” she says. “The fields
are being harvested – so I sometimes have to be very quick,
as the composition that I’m in the middle of can completely
change overnight if the farmer harvests his crop, or moves the
hay bales – which makes it a challenge sometimes.” A case
of seizing the moment and making sketches while the sun
shines. “I try to get up at 6am and am able to go out and do
an hour or two sketching before I come in for breakfast – or
before I have to catch the train up to London,” she says.
This sounds quite exhausting to me, but exhilarating too.
As well as painting, Suzanne also finds time to craft things
out of papier mâché and to knit and sew, often making
items up from scraps. The appliqué tablecloth in the kitchen
has been made from a plain old linen tablecloth from a
hotel and upstairs on the beds there are some beautiful
and intricate patchwork bedspreads. Much of the material
for the things Suzanne makes is from Bell House Fabrics,
but she enjoys recycling and creating new things from
old, and any small leftover pieces are made into outfits
for rag and peg dolls, and also small decorations for the
simple birch twig hanging displays around the house.
Upstairs in her daughter’s room, a sweetly simple, light
filled room, we pause to look out of the window at the
church and the view. “I did quite a lot of painting from
this room, with the easel by the window looking out. You
get such a good view and can also see people coming and
going.” She laughs, adding: “I’d be able to solve murder
mysteries from up here, watching everyone as they go
about their business – like an episode of Miss Marple!”
We go through the charming Jack and Jill bathroom and
out through another bedroom into the adjoining annexe,
where the light from the extra window floods through. This
is where Suzanne has her studio. Downstairs there’s a giant
table containing a large number of Suzanne’s paintings. “I
have to spread them all out here like this,” she says, “because
I work on so many at once, and I paint in oils in a very
textured way, using many layers that I apply quite thickly. It
takes an age to dry, so laying them out like this works well.”
The annexe is at right angles to the main house, making the
small outdoor space into a courtyard garden. It was originally
all paved, but Tim and Suzanne have removed some of the
hardstanding and made a flower bed down one side. Suzanne
also grows lots of plants in pots, and is particularly proud of
a mimosa, recently bought from Great Dixter and awaiting
a permanent home. She has managed to give the garden a
colour injection, but it’s hard to get used to a smaller space,
and she misses the large garden from their old house, even if
the upkeep is much less here. We’ve been here five years now
and I do miss gardening. I would love to grow some veggies.”
Living in a completely different style of property to the one
you’ve lived in before is always going to require compromise
and an adaptable nature. And often within a family, what
suits one person won’t be ideal for another. “Tim aspires
to live in a minimalist house with no ‘bric-a-brac’ – as he
calls my collections!” says Suzanne. But I sense that he
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