THE RETURNING LIGHT
The story behind the work
Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, I grew up in a landscape that shaped the imaginations of both David Hockney and David Whyte. Long before I understood why, I found myself captivated by the same changing light.
I spent my childhood wandering the hills, cycling through the valleys, and climbing the tallest trees, watching the light breathe across the landscape— unknowingly falling in love with the conversation between light and shadow.
"The light in Yorkshire doesn't ask permission. A fleeting burst across the fields, and suddenly everything is revealed. That moment of revelation is what I paint towards."
– SUSAN SMITH
Only later did I realise that the landscape had been teaching me how to see. The same conversation between light and darkness that unfolded across the hills was unfolding within me.
The Returning Light is the story of how painting became my way of listening and of making sense of the light and darkness that have shaped my life.
My practice began in darkness.
A car crash marked the threshold, the moment life as I had known it ended, and something I hadn't yet named began. I turned to the canvas not as someone pursuing an art career, but as someone in search of a witness.
My career before the crash was dedicated to prescribing light as homeopathic medicine. This light tethered me through my darkest hours. As physical, emotional, and life stories unravelled, I began to understand them through the interconnected language of remedies and nature's signatures.
My work began as kinetic gestures, urgent expressions of inner change. Over time, the trauma found its release and was replaced by prayer, contemplation, and a quieter way of listening.
Those prayers led me to the 72 Names of God, an ancient system of sacred letters used in prayer and meditation.
Through colour, form and gesture, I began translating what is sensed rather than seen. Each painting became a meditation and an act of listening.
My latest body of work, The Returning Light, emerges from the meeting place of homeopathy and painting. Drawing upon years of study in spirituality, symbolism and the healing arts, I seek to capture essence so completely through paint that it acts as medicine to the soul.
Inspired by the Yorkshire landscape, I am always searching beyond the horizon, surrendering to the unknown, the next impulse, the next colour, and the next possibility of revelation.
BIOGRAPHY
Born
Education
Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK, 1972
Birmingham University, UK, Graphic Design, 1994
College of Practical Homeopathy, UK, LCHE, 2014
Resides
Professional background
Lives and works in Somerset, UK
Over 25 years as a graphic designer and Creative Director
Practicing homeopath and mentor at the River School of Homeopathy
Author of Soul Signatures - A Journey into the Soul of Remedies
Exhibited
Unity Conference, Glastonbury, 2024
DNA of the Soul - Acrylic on canvas