Susie Rotberg, Ashdown Forest’s Own Artist, in Pooh Bear Country: Living & working in a wood

So many of you have expressed an interest in riding or visiting Ashdown Forest of Pooh Bear fame, I thought I would share an artist’s work that speak eloquently of the forest. For me, the distinguished  local artist, Susie Rotberg, is the one who best captures the spirit of Ashdown Forest in her subtle paintings, both the secret hidden depths of the woods and the grand sweeping vistas of the heather clad heathlands, the secret streams and wood and stone bridges. 

She is the area’s best kept secret. She is a fairly private person so is not easily drawn as to who her clients are. As I ride my horse Callum past her home deep in the woods I have on occasion spotted her a rtwork in her studio but more often our paths cross when she is out in the woods walking her Labradoodle Stanley.

There is a sort of Hansel & Gretel quality to her and husband Ed’s home, standing as it does with no near neighbours and enclosed by woods. Whenever my horse Callum and I approach it, he starts looking out for Stanley who barks a welcome.

Callum approaching the artist’s home

Artist Profile:

"I never wanted to do anything but paint and draw and was actively encouraged by my father, an enthusiastic and accomplished amateur painter. However when I left Kingston polytechnic in 1977 with a degree in Fine Art I discovered that the world was not waiting for another painter and printmaker!

I joined a quilting course and started making and selling batik printed silk cushions and bags from a stall in Covent Garden while based in Sussex. I managed to sell a few 'one offs' into Heals in Tottenham Court Rd. - this was not very lucrative but I met lots of interesting people and soon I was getting freelance work designing logos and other graphic design projects before heading off to spend a few years travelling

 Susie Rotberg with some of her recent work at the Open Studio viewing in Green Lane Crowborough.

On my return and with my first child in tow, I joined a friend and his wife in their interior design company in Ardingly. They needed someone to provide artist impressions and sample boards. Soon I was helping visualise and design rooms and then sourcing and buying items for clients. It was the time of specialist paint effects and I must have marbled or rag rolled most of the South East of England!  We designed some very exciting projects including The Palm Court restaurant on Brighton Pier, the London house belonging to The Mission (an 80’s band ) and a country house and Docklands apartment for the journalist Jean Rook.      

It was then that family life took over with the arrival of son number two. To keep body and soul together I spent two years on an Institute of Linguists French course and obtained an advanced certificate. I taught adult beginners French for a couple of years from home while making cartoons and caricatures for friends' birthdays and other events. This idea grew and soon I was being regularly commissioned. Eventually it morphed into a greetings card business, Snooze Design, which ran for several years.  

 I also produced cartoons for various in-house company magazines including Virgin Atlantic and then began illustrating for a regular column in Everything France magazine. At the same time I was illustrating campaign material for a London based PR company. I was also commissioned to paint a mural in their offices which led to other murals, including two at Cumnor House School in Danehill.  My last illustration job was 7 seven years ago, while I was a working as a teaching assistant.  I produced a series of covers for Money Week magazine but the deadlines were terrifying … it wasn’t for me. 

On retirement, I returned to painting and I am lucky enough to have my own studio in a renovated old outbuilding attached to our house in Ashdown Forest.  That is where I now spend a great deal of my time surrounded by the wooded landscape that inspires my work. I think that the natural world has all the best designs and capturing the shift in light and the palette of the changing seasons is what I love to do. I do not miss working to a brief or the deadlines!

I have found it very difficult to stay focussed during lockdown and so have beenbegan experimenting with a more ‘fast and loose’ approach to painting. I tend to overwork things anyway so this has been a useful exercise. I've mostly been working with acrylics on heavy  paper, which are quick drying and so easier to build layers of colour.       

By mixing the paint on top layers with a blending gel or retarder you can scrape through to the colour underneath before it dries. I’ve been using big flat brushes, sticks, sponges, an old washing up brush, palette knives and my new favourite toys ..a selection of catalysts. I like to have a few on the go at the same time- that way you can leave one and move on before you start getting over detailed. his technique takes away the control and leads to more expressive work- the trick, as ever, is knowing when to walk away!"

Susie Rotberg -  Snooze@btinternet.com 0r Mobile 07855052923

Julian Roup – info@bendigopr.co.uk or 07970 563958