Something about it stopped me in my tracks because I experienced a powerful physical response and a very strong inner knowing that I needed to create my own artistic interpretation of those words. For me, there was something deeply spiritual about the experience. I had a sense that I was being guided towards something I didn't yet understand.

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Initially I ignored it but the feeling kept returning until eventually the urge to paint became impossible to ignore… and so, I began to paint. With no plan and very little idea of what I was doing, I simply gathered what materials I could find, got into a meditative state and began.

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That experience became the beginning of my intuitive approach to painting; responding to an inner urge to create and allowing the painting to reveal itself without knowing in advance what it would become. The spiritual connection has remained part of my creative life, sometimes subtly and other times very powerfully.

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That way of working remains an important part of my practice today and being more of a ‘night owl’, I often paint at night by candlelight and to music. Once I have set up, music is usually what I seek first, and it often helps me move into a deeper connection with the whole experience of painting.

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Sometimes, however, I begin with a clear intention … perhaps a photograph, an idea I want to explore or a commission. Even then, I often reach a point where the painting begins to evolve beyond my original starting point. There are also times when a painting begins with a vision — something that appears on the screen of my mind and that I feel compelled to bring into being.

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Cloud No. 9 (the painting you see in the pictures from the 2020 Pop-up Shop) was one such painting. I was driving through country lanes near my home when Bryan Adams' song of the same name came on the radio, and suddenly I saw the painting in my mind's eye. I could hardly wait to get home and start painting. I played the song on repeat while I worked and most of the painting was completed that way.

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​I am largely self-taught. Always a creative in one way or another, art was part of my life at school and I have explored different creative forms over the years, including watercolour and online art masterclasses, but I never followed a formal art-school route.

I work primarily in acrylics, alongside pastel and mixed media. Music, movement, light and texture continue to play an important part in my creative process.

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If you're wondering where the name SuzanA on my paintings comes from, it's actually from my maiden name, Suzan Atai. When I was younger, my first name was spelled differently, and that is the name I used to sign my early watercolour flower paintings. When I returned to painting all these years later, I simply shortened it to SuzanA.

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My work has been exhibited in London and surrounding areas, including Parallax Art Fair at Chelsea Town Hall, most recently in July 2025. Flowing River Rise was selected as a finalist in Art Room Gallery's international juried Waters competition, in 2020.

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And so 'the journey continues'. Yes I even have a painting by this name. :-)

I still don't always know where a painting is going when I begin. Perhaps that is part of what makes Art Alive for me ... the fact that something can emerge through the process that I could never have planned or predicted.

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