Susan M Millis

Biography

Susan is a pyrographic artist specialising in botanical and wildlife subjects, portrayed on British hardwood paperweights and pomanders; panels and ‘found’ woodland timber. Pyrography has a long, comprehensive history. The effects are achieved by ‘scorching’ an organic surface to various shades of brown, from light brown through sepia to almost black, to finally produce a picture. To do this, Susan works with an electric tool, which has a very fine piece of nickel-chromium wire for a nib, and she builds up each picture in layers, with tiny individual touches.

Susan’s botanical inspiration and journey always begins with the wood, and continues with the hedgerows she explores. As she closely examines her chosen surface, an idea forms in her mind, usually dictated by the season. She then works from life, building up her design leaf by leaf on the wood surface.

Susan has returned full time to her art work after a break of some fifteen years, while she pursued academic studies in the history, science, and conservation of the art form, gaining a BA (Hons) and an MPhil along the way. Today, science and art are intrinsically linked in the new work she is creating. Without one, there would no longer be the other.

Susan is a long-standing member of the Society of Women Artists, exhibiting in London between 1985 and 2005. More recently, she has exhibited with the Society of Botanical Artists in 2016 and 2019.
In 2019, she was awarded a Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence for her three-dimensional work.

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