About Sue
Sue Groom
Sue grew up in the English countryside, often home schooled and given the freedom to explore her surroundings – Cornwall for the sea, Gloucestershire for the fields – alone and happily.
When she wasn’t outside, she was working out storylines with her dad who was an author. He would write the stories and Sue would draw pictures to go with them.
Sue went on to Art School in Cheltenham after taking a short secretarial course (a deal with her dad to have a skill that could ‘earn her a living’) and then a teaching diploma which she completed at Reading University in 1963.
Sue taught art in schools and adult education centres until the late 1980s. In between and around the teaching, she took on commissions whenever asked. Friends, friends of friends or someone who knew someone wanting something. There were also hotels, factories and mansions with blank walls, all crying out for a mural.
In the early 1990’s, Sue had some leaflets printed to advertise herself as a commission artist and has ever since earned her living painting and sculpting. I don’t know exactly how many, but the number of commissions must go into the 100s if not 1000s during that time. Examples of these can be found on her ‘Previous Commissions’ page.
Sue’s main aim has always been to give someone what they want, to please them and to make them happy, charging just enough to live.
In the early 2000s, she took on another teaching job at her grandson’s school which happened to have been created and managed for over 70 years by someone who had the same ethos… to share one’s creativity and to bring children up in a creative environment.
Sue once explained something to me… When you draw something, it’s an exploration into whatever you are looking at. The skill is something you develop over time with practice. At some point during this development, your aim becomes to capture the results of this exploration.
Over the last 10 years, Sue, now 83, has moved into a new realm, she’s exploring her imagination as though it’s a life drawing. Her recent paintings and sculptures are the result. She hopes they bring anyone who looks at them some of the joy and excitement she felt creating them.
Helen Wallenda (Sue’s daughter).