Having recently returned to Richmond after several years living in New York, Sue Heatley combines printmaking and painting techniques to express abstraction rooted in mark making. Over her thirty year studio practice, she has created collage-like compositions through applications of myriad materials, including acrylic paint, quick-drying pigments and ink, on varied backgrounds like textured linen and thick rag paper. In her linen paintings, Heatley works layer by layer; swooping brushwork, often in pale tones, obscure glimpses of contrasting tones beneath, adding an element of mystery to each painting. In recent works on paper, like Fool’s Forecast, her compositions evoke biomorphic forms through ethereal marks balanced on a muted ground.

Heatley received her BA in Art History from Hiram College in Ohio and later studied printmaking at the Richmond Printmaking Workshop in Virginia. She has exhibited at The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY; Site Brooklyn, NY; the International Print Center and Turn Gallery, both, New York, NY; 1708 Gallery, Quirk Gallery and The Visual Arts Center, all, Richmond, Virginia. Her work is represented in numerous public and corporate collections, including the United States Department of State, Washington, DC; Esteé Lauder Companies, New York, NY; Special Collections and Archives of Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia, Hunton & Williams and Owens & Minor, all, Richmond, VA.