Working from her Nelson home studio, Sue Scobie's inspiration comes from the natural environment of New Zealand and Australia. Her work aims to capture the memories of time spent in wild places: the colours, forms, sounds and textures of the land, sea, sky and bush.
Initially juggling ceramic studies part-time with a full-time Master of Science (Ecotoxicology) programme in the early 1990s, Sue gave up her ceramic studies when juggling the two became too much. The lure of ceramics drew Sue back on her returned to New Zealand from her studies in Sydney and she enrolled in a Diploma in Ceramic Art at Otago Polytechnic which she completed 2009.
All of Sue's landscape vessels are hand-formed by pinching and coiling using combinations of porcelain and other clays that she colours herself. The unglazed surfaces of her work are highly tactile and finished by hand-polishing. There are risks with combining different clay bodies, and losses can be high during drying and firing.
Sue's work can be found in private collections in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, USA and on permanent exhibition in the Fu-Le International Ceramics Museum in China.