Susan Statham

Artist/Writer

Artist

Biography

Susan Statham Self Portrait

Susan Statham is an avid student and teacher. She is a graduate of Algonquin College, the University of Waterloo, one year special art in Ottawa, The National Portrait Academy, part-time studies at The Ontario College of Art, and workshops at the Cecil-Graves Studio in Italy and the Art Students League in New York.

Experienced in most mediums, her favourite is oils and her preferred subject matter is portraiture. Her commissions have included portraits of our first woman Lieutenant-Governor, the Hon. Pauline McGibbon and her husband, Donald McGibbon. For Canada’s 150th, Susan was commissioned by Galerie Q to paint the Nation Builder’s series of 12 of Canada’s prime ministers. This work has been showcased in Arabella magazine and there are plans to take it on a Canadian tour.

A former school librarian, Susan relocated to Grafton in 2000. At the request of those who saw her work, she began teaching from her studio. She is also a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature and creative writing courses at the University of Waterloo and Loyalist College. Her quest for instruction in classical and traditional methods is chronicled in her first mystery novel, ‘The Painter’s Craft’. In 2016 Susan won the Medli Award for most promising manuscript for her second mystery novel, ‘True Image’.

Susan is Chair of the Spirit of the Hills writers group – SOTHWG, past president of Spirit of the Hills and president of the Cobourg Art Club. In 2021, Susan received Cobourg’s Distinguished Civic Award for Arts and Culture.

Visit her web page at www.sstatham.com

Writer

The Painter's Craft

A writer, artist and teacher, Susan Statham was born in Toronto and raised in Fredericton, NB and Ottawa, ON. A graduate of Algonquin College, she also attended the Ontario College of Art & Design, the National Portrait Academy, the Institute of Children’s Literature, and received her BA from the University of Waterloo where she studied Advanced Fiction Writing. Her quest for instruction in classical and traditional methods is chronicled in her first mystery novel, The Painter’s Craft. The inspiration for this book, published by Bayeux Arts, came from one sentence in one art class – “Cobalt violet is the most poisonous colour in your paint box.” Clues in the mystery are in a series of paintings and the cover of The Painter’s Craft features one of Susan’s oils. An editor and a contributor to Hill Spirits I, II. III, IV and V (pub. Blue Denim Press), Susan won the Medli Award for most promising manuscript for her second mystery novel, True Image.

Susan is Chair of the Spirit of the Hills writers group, SOTHWG, and past president of Spirit of the Hills. In 2021, Susan received Cobourg’s Distinguished Civic Award for Arts and Culture.

Visit her web page at www.sstatham.com