Interview by Olivia Williams | Photos by Eloise Fuss
For over two decades, Adelaide-based artist Sue Ninham has been exploring the edges of creativity through abstraction, intuition, and experimental play. A designer, maker, teacher, and multi-disciplinary artist, Sue’s work emerges from memory, imagination, and lived experience, developing a unique visual language that reflects transformation, introspection, and healing.
Sue’s practice is grounded in what she calls “abandonment and experimentation,” a philosophy that embraces uncertainty and creative risk. “Often I turn up without a defined intention but more a feeling for what might happen creatively,” she explains. Whether working in watercolour, oil, textiles, or print, each mark she makes responds to the previous one, capturing a sub-conscious, ongoing conversation with her materials.
Even amidst moments of sadness or inner turmoil, joy permeates her work. “Something that continues to surprise me is that during periods of sadness or inner turmoil the work I make remains joyful despite it. I am not aware this is happening while I am making; only after the work is done do I notice. Perhaps at my core, joy exists as a dominant force.” Her intuitive approach extends to knowing when a piece is finished. “I have reached the point of knowing with more confidence and tend not to overwork things. If my inner critic urges me to add, I recognise it as uncertainty and resist. I do nothing more. Those moments are tense and exciting.”
Sue’s art draws inspiration from coastal landscapes and open-water swimming, with the ocean’s surface, depths, and horizon interweaving in her subconscious. Large oil paintings often feature a horizon line first, creating a sense of spatial confusion and tipping perspective, reflecting the weightless openness she experiences in the water. She likens it to “space-walking,” where scale and movement merge with emotion.
Her residencies, including a two-month stint in an isolated Icelandic village, have had a profound impact on her practice. “I felt humbled and empowered by the landscape and environment simultaneously. It’s a place of opposites where fire and ice actively shape the island. New levels of unpredictability, openness, and riskiness is what Iceland has given my work as an artist.”
Over the years, Sue has developed a consistent vocabulary of marks and colours, often returning unconsciously to forms that resonate with memory or previous experience. Her love of mid-century design continues to influence her palette, from 1950s acid yellow to icy northern landscapes from Iceland. She describes the process as “serious play,” noting, “Most people assume that abstraction is an easy process. If someone saw me mid-process, they would see me deep in concentration, physically active, making multiple decisions in quick succession, oblivious to everything else.”
Rules exist in her practice, but they are flexible and protective rather than prescriptive. “I gleefully paint with blue and green. The only rules I have are that I must protect my ability to make work through having a space to work in and time to be there. I also maintain a regimen of creative risk-taking which I call ‘creative bungee jumping.’ I will never break these rules.”
Career highlights, from winning the Adelaide Fringe poster competition to national art awards, have provided validation and recognition, though not necessarily altering her creative direction. Her work has been exhibited extensively, and she continues to develop new projects, including wearable art and upcoming online sales via Shopify.
Sue’s connection to South Australia is deeply personal. Coastal landscapes, particularly the ocean, provide both inspiration and grounding. “Grange beach feels like home. I took up club and Masters swimming as a result of my family joining the Grange Surf Club when my kids were young. I grew to appreciate Adelaide’s long, open beaches through those experiences.” She also values the city’s evolving energy, regularly visiting the State Gallery, independent galleries, and events such as the Adelaide Festival, Fringe, and WOMAD.
SUE + SA
Where in SA do you feel creatively “plugged in”? Coastal areas resonate powerfully, wherever I am in the world. Streaky Bay, Sydney, and Grange beach all shape my connection to the ocean.
Favourite local spaces? I live in Bowden with a studio at The Mill (154 Angus Street). I regularly visit the State Gallery, smaller independent galleries, and favourite café The Humble Sando in Grange, especially after ocean swims.
Where would you take someone to understand your work? My studio at The Mill, where I create and store works on canvas, paper, and wearable art. Soon, a Shopify site will allow people to purchase original pieces, prints, and wearable art.
To find out more visit: sueninham.com
