Susie Leiper

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