Susie Batsford is a Devon-based artist whose richly coloured paintings explore botanical forms, symbolic narratives, and decorative traditions.
Flowers are at the heart of her work, increasingly held within decorated vessels that function as both objects and metaphors. For Susie, the vessel echoes the human body as a temporary container for consciousness, while the brief and beautiful existence of flowers reflects our own time on earth and the beauty, creativity, and joy we are able to bring into the world while we are here.
Drawing on influences including medieval illuminated manuscripts, Indian miniature painting, and traditional folk art, her paintings combine close observation of the natural world with colour, pattern, and ornament. Historical patterns, particularly those found in the cloths beneath her vessels, also provide a quiet connection with those who came before us — their homes, rituals, and the objects they lived with.
Drawing remains at the heart of Susie’s practice. Ideas often begin in her sketchbook or as small studies on handmade paper before developing into larger paintings, primarily in acrylic on linen. Working from her studio in the Devon countryside, she draws continual inspiration from surrounding gardens, hedgerows and changing seasons, alongside longstanding interests in history, colour and the metaphysical.
Susie is represented by Lantic Gallery in Tiverton and was selected for the 2026 Devon Open Studios Emerging Artist Exhibition at Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton, where her work is exhibited from 12 September to 24 October 2026. A selection of original paintings and other work can also be found through The Illustrarium website.
