About
Since graduating from the Ottawa School of Art in 1994, Susan has exhibited extensively in juried shows throughout the National Capital Region. Her work has also been recognized with numerous awards. Susan is represented by the Cube Gallery, The General Fine Craft Art and Design and Ottawa Art Gallery. As well as Shane Norrie contemporary in Stratford, Ontario.
Her work involves fusing a thick, translucent layer of beeswax to a milk paint primed panel. She then scrapes away some areas to reveal underlying nuances, scars or "beauty marks" sometimes enhancing those emerging surfaces with collage.
"I work spontaneously, intuitively allowing the work to evolve as it will. These paintings are a mixture of light-hearted and dead serious themes."
- Susan Ukkola
Her transparent layers of encaustic paintings reveal traces of what went before, the pentimento. The ability to "see through", to reveal cuts and scrapes, both good and bad, parallels the complexity and beauty of life and relationships.