ARTIST Susan Fowler will be holding a fundraising exhibition and dinner in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association at Tregenna Castle Hotel on September 20 - the middle Saturday of the St Ives September Festival.

The evening promises to be a unique insight into her life as an artist in Cornwall. There will be talks with guest speakers, an exhibition, three-course meal and a sale of her art, supporting MNDA after she lost her brother Steve to the disease.

Susan is a leading UK textile, pressed flora and mixed media artist pressing flora from her garden and windswept seaweed from local beaches, combining them with shells from fishermen, fishing net, precious stones and luxurious silks and satins.

Her September exhibition will include work inspired by Tregenna Castle, including pressed flora from the Tregenna grounds.

Suffering a head injury after contracting meningitis whilst a practising lawyer, was the catalyst for her artwork which has been featured in Tatler, World Of Interiors and London Life magazines and is held in private collections worldwide.

“I was a commercial property lawyer and, whilst working at Coventry Council  in 1996 I came down with meningitis,” said Susan, who moved to Cornwall in 2005 to live in St Austell. “It caused damage to the left side of my brain, causing caused epilepsy which we couldn't control for eight years and I started pressing flowers between seizures to calm me. 

“I wasn't really creative before the head injury and the artwork has been triggered as a result. They say when there is damage to the left side of the brain that you switch to your right creative side and I was left with an acute awareness of light and colour, I believe as a result of the epilepsy.  

“So my artwork now is full of intense colour and depth as well as lots of light catching elements. I was chair of St Austell Canoe Club for a while and many hours of watching the waves has resulted in a unique style of creating waves and currents I see around Cornwall, with textiles. 

“London magazines then caught on to my work and it ended up in Tatler etc and lead to me having am exhibition in London. I wrote and self-published my autobiography Blue Yonder and Beyond with the help of Headland Printers in Penzance.”

Susan added: “The September exhibition is going to be very sentimental for me but i hope very inspirational for those attending.”

Tickets are available at www.susanfowlergallery.com