Help preserve our future
West Dean is part of a registered charity and relies on the support of generous donors, friends, legacies to help us deliver world-class education in conservation and the creative arts and maintain our award-winning gardens.
Suzanne Balchin
Suzanne Balchin trained at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London and has since worked through agency and private commissions. She lives and works in Dorset specialising in watercolour using a 'dry brush technique' which allows the development of highly observed and detailed studies inspired by natural history within the ancient Wessex landscape.
Suzanne's paintings are regularly exhibited through London galleries, including The Hyde Park Gallery and the Mall Galleries. In 2011 she was invited to become a demonstrating artist at the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition. She had a solo show at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.
Describe your approach to teaching:
I have a very structured approach to my teaching practice, careful to plan every stage of development whilst supporting individual students on a one to one basis. Essential to the learning process is live demonstration, whereby techniques are revealed stage by stage, informing experimentation to complete the set task.
What inspires your own work?
Watercolour is my expressive visual language, influenced by first seeing Pre-Raphaelite Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, when still at school. The exceptional clarity and intense detail represented in these works, inspired by nature, both physically and spiritually had a profound influence on me.