A word from Sue
Tell us a bit about yourself and your expat “trail”.
My family is originally from South Africa; we moved to Singapore 14 years ago. Initially, I focused on raising our three boys and I painted in my spare time; now that my kids are older I’m a full-time artist.
We still consider Cape Town to be “home” and even though my children have spent the majority of their lives in Singapore (my youngest son Sam was born here), we’re all very proudly South African. We have a holiday house about two hours out of Cape Town, and in pre-pandemic times we went home at least once a year.
My involvement with Eyes2Eyes came about largely as a result of feeling so helpless about the terrible poverty and suffering that was happening in South Africa; the pandemic made an already tough situation even worse. For some time, I’d been working on a series of paintings of uprooted aloes and succulents. I would often bring aloes back to Singapore from South Africa; I loved how they could continue to thrive in the tropics with their roots out of the ground. They became symbolic of my life as an expat. This series of paintings is created purely for giving back; all money raised from the selling of the originals and the fine art prints goes to South Africa.
By the way, we once featured your home in Expat Living – do you still live there?
Yes, you featured me in the first home we lived in in Singapore! It was a condo on Tanglin Road. We were only there for two years; after that, we moved to a house in Bukit Timah near the British Club. We were there for five years before moving to our current house – a black-and-white bungalow in Alexandra Park. I have a studio here, so I can work from home.
Describe your art for us.
I’m a self-taught, realistic still-life painter, and with my work I aim to capture the beauty of everyday objects. I bring these objects to life by painting them large and in a hyper-realistic style. I’m mostly known for my paintings of largescale, hyper-realistic bottles – I had a solo exhibition called “Bottles” at Art Porters Gallery in June last year; the response was so incredible that I’m currently working on a new series of Bottles for an upcoming show.
How did you come to know Amanda and collaborate with her?
We met years ago when she lived in Singapore – we were part of a large group of South African friends and we were also quite involved in the Africa Society of Singapore. We kept in touch when Amanda moved home and when I decided to create a series of paintings for charity and fundraising to help my fellow South Africans, the Eyes2Eyes Foundation was a perfect fit.
What are your hopes for the organisation for 2022?
Amanda has dedicated all her time and energy to making a meaningful and real difference in the lives of people living with reversible blindness in South Africa; my main goal is to try and help her raise funds, as the more money raised, the more people the foundation will help.
Find out more about Eyes2Eyes at eyes2eyes.org.za. Sue’s prints are available for purchase in South Africa through sundaygirl.co.za; for international orders, contact Sue at info@suegrayart.com or DM her through Instagram @suegrayart.