Susan Ryder RP NEAC

Sue's father was a talented amateur painter and at 13 she started borrowing his oil paints.

Her portrait commissions began while she was still at art school and it was there that her love of interiors began with the discovery of Edouard Vuillard and the teaching of Bernard Dunstan.

She is still passionately in love with lamplight, to her it is more thrilling than the most beautiful sunset.Setting her scene before starting an interior can take time, moving a lamp a fraction , draping a jacket over a chair or dribbling  wine into a glass to just the right level, the upright stem of a glass is her passion too.

Married to Martin Bates, Sue divides her time between London and the Scottish Borders.

Image: Susan Ryder RP NEAC, Elizabeth and her six Grandsons

RP Member Susan Ryder has been commissioned a wide range of people, most notably in 1981, commissioned by the then Prince of Wales, H.R.H. The Princess of Wales in her wedding dress and in 1997, H.M. The Queen, to celebrate the Royal Automobile Club's Centenary.

Other Notable Sitters:

• Tilda Swinton

• The Princess of Wales for the Prince of Wales

• Sir Michael Scholar, President, St John’s College Oxford

• Sir Eric Ash, Imperial College

• Sir Malcolm Gillies, City University

• Nicola Paget, Actress

• Dame Angela McClean DBE FRS

• Mary Breem, Headmistress of St Mary’s Ascot