Mountains inspire awe, power and a sense of wonder. For Susie, they are her religion, her path to escapism, her impetus to create. She believes, like the famous art historian and explorer John Ruskin, that mountains are ‘the great cathedrals of the earth’. Her paintings may not always portray the obvious, but her abstractions delve into the essence of the land and produce an aura of atmosphere, of weather, of what is inside the mountain as well as on its surface.
Susie’s interest in calligraphy and painting grew out of an editorial career where she specialised in books on Chinese art and archaeology. A lengthy spell as a scribe on Donald Jackson’s Saint John’s Bible led to a flourishing of her own painting and calligraphic work. Behind her work lies a passion for mountains: Scotland’s Munros, the French Pyrenees and the sacred mountains of China.
Born and educated in Glasgow, Susie has degrees from the University of St Andrews and the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is a Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, works freelance in Edinburgh and has a longstanding involvement with a painters’ group run by Paul Keir. An in-depth interview is available on https://www.art-scot.com/susie-leiper.
Solo exhibitions
2023 On High Hills: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2021 Reopening: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2020 Library: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh (online only)
2017 One never quite knows the mountain …: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2016 Into the Mountain: &Collective Gallery, Bridge of Allan
2015 The Living Mountain: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2012 The One Life: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2011 The Word on Wood: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
Selected group exhibitions
2024 covered . discovered: Designer Bookbinders and Society of Scribes & Illuminators, Crafts Council Gallery, London
2023-4 Scottish Landscape Awards: City Art Centre, Edinburgh
2022 Pattern:Books: Upright Gallery, Edinburgh
On Sonorous Seas: An Tobar and Mull Theatre and Shona Reid Gallery, Glasgow School of Art
2019 Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Awards exhibition: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
Palimpsest: SSA exhibition, An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis
print fold stitch: artist books from bound : unbound: National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, Lincolnshire
Precipitous City: with bound : unbound, Upright Gallery, Edinburgh
Rock, Paper, Pixel: with Letter Exchange, Lettering Arts Centre, Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Lettering: Art & Illusion: Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbeighshire, Wales
Lines from Scotland: St Andrews Museum, Fife; Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries, Fife; Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries
2018 A brush with silence: live calligraphic event, Round Church, Cambridge, organised by Brody Neuenschwander
bound : unbound: artist books at &Gallery, Edinburgh
Encounter: with Liz Douglas, Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay
Up on the mountain and down by the river: with Felicity Bristow, Upright Gallery, Edinburgh
2017 The Word-Hoard: Love letters to our land, an exhibition by Rosamund, John and Robert Macfarlane, Wordsworth House and Garden, Cockermouth, Cumbria (National Trust)
Orchestra of Letters: A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk (The Lettering Arts Trust)
2016 Divine Inspiration: 95th anniversary exhibition of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, York Minster
2014 Hidden Door festival: Vault 4 with the Artist Book Group
2013 bound : unbound: Artist Book Group at McNaughtan’s Bookshop,
Edinburgh
26 Words: Letter Exchange, London and other venues
2012 Paper Page Process: Artist Book Group at WASPS Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh
Words set free: Letter Exchange, London and other venues
2011 Celebrate Calligraphy: 90th anniversary exhibition of the
Society of Scribes and Illuminators, London, Sunderland, Halifax
Paint Print Page: Artist Book Group at McNaughtan’s Bookshop, Edinburgh
2009 Wych Elm Project: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
2007 – Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), Visual Arts Scotland (VAS), Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) and Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW): annual open exhibitions, various
2006 V&A, London: pages of The Saint John’s Bible
Museum of Bible Art, New York: pages of The Saint John’s Bible
2000 Source: Royal Museum, Edinburgh
Awards
2023 Pax Christi Award from Saint John’s University, Minnesota, to all members of the team who created the Saint John’s Bible
2020 Shortlisted for the John Byrne Award 2020
2018 W Gordon Smith Award for painting, OPEN 2018, joint exhibition by VAS and SSA, RSA Edinburgh
2016 Jerwood-funded collaborative residency with musician Timothy Cooper and poet Samuel Tongue, Cove Park, Argyll and Bute
2015 RSA Open exhibition: Edinburgh College of Art library prize
RSW: John Purcell Paper Award
2014 Visual Arts Scotland: Morton Fraser Award
2011 Visual Arts Scotland: Nancy Graham Memorial Book Award
Selected commissions
2022 Mhairi Killin: On Sonorous Seas: calligraphic interpretation of poem by Miek Zwamborn, exhibited at An Tobar and Mull Theatre and at Shona Reid Gallery, Glasgow School of Art
2019 Benjamin Tindall Architects, Springfield Church, Fife: painted inscription on cornice
Royal Bank of Scotland and Nile: calligraphy for polymer £50 note
Commissioned lettering from Royal Scottish Academy; Royal
College of Physicians, Educational Institute of Scotland; National
Museums of Scotland; The Glenmorangie Company; Wolffe
2018 Royal Bank of Scotland and Nile: calligraphy for polymer £20 note
2017 Robert Macfarlane, author: painted titles on mounts of photographs by his parents for The Word Hoard at Wordsworth House Museum, Cockermouth, Cumbria
2016 St Cross College, Oxford: donor recognition panel for new wing
2015 Royal Bank of Scotland and Nile: calligraphy for polymer £5 and £10 notes, issued 2016 and 2017
2013 St Cross College, Oxford: artist book for donor
2012 Benjamin Tindall Architects, Museum of Edinburgh: painted
inscriptions on shop beams; reception signage on linen;
transcription on to wall of Martyrs’ Monument text
2011 St John’s and King’s Park Church, Dalkeith: excerpts from
Psalms painted on wall of nave
2010 Crown Office: writing of Letters Patent for House of Lords
Edinburgh International Festival: wall of painted poetry
in the Hub, Edinburgh
Polygon: illustrations and cover artwork for The Book of Crows by Sam Meekings
2008 Middle and Inner Temple, London: writing of 2500-word commemorative charter for 400th anniversary
2007 The Queen Mother’s Memorial Fund for Scotland:
design and writing of donor book
2002 – 6 Unique Events: handmade books for Robert Burns International
Humanitarian Award
2003 CBBC: Shoebox Zoo, writing on screen as double
1999 British Museum: inscriptions in copies of Gilded Dragons for Her Majesty The Queen and President Jiang Zemin of China
1998 St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh: donor book for Phoebe Anna Traquair Song School appeal
1997 Royal Museum, Edinburgh: map of China for Precious Cargo exhibition
Collections
Bank of Montreal; British Museum, London; Edinburgh College of Art; Edinburgh and Lothian Healthcare Foundation; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Glamis Castle, Angus; National Library of Scotland; National Museums Scotland; Royal Collection; Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA; V&A Dundee
Selected publications
https://www.art-scot.com: Issue 3, interview by Roger Spence
Lines from Scotland, Fife Contemporary 2019
Letter Arts Review, juried issues, various; cover artist 28:4, January 2015
Celebrate Calligraphy, Society of Scribes and Illuminators, London 2011
Wych Elm, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 2009
The Saint John’s Bible, Prophets, Wisdom, Historical, and Letters and Revelation volumes,
2008 – 2010
Slightly Foxed, no. 1 (2004); no. 13 (2007), cover
An Leabhar Mor (The Great Book of Gaelic), Canongate, Edinburgh 2002
Words as Images, Society of Scribes and Illuminators, 2000
Precious Cargo: Scots and the China Trade, National Museums of Scotland, 1997