Olly and Suzi

Olly and Suzi, Olly Williams and Suzi Winstanley, are two British artists who specialise in collaborative painting of wildlife. They travel to the most remote parts of the world to witness animals in the wild and paint them together, at the same time on the same canvas.[1] Olly and Suzi met at Saint Martin's School of Art in 1987,[2] and developed their unique art making technique on an exchange to Syracuse University in New York in 1988-89. At Syracuse, they learned about the Native American Mohawk/Iroquois belief in "animals as brothers" which has been an integral part of their work since then.

Olly and Suzi

Biography

Olly and Suzi originally began working together after meeting as students at Saint Martin's School of Art in 1987,[3] and graduated together with a joint degree.[4] Their collaborative mode of working became established during a scholarship to Syracuse University in New York State during the period 1988 to 1989.[5]

Since 1993, they have taken part in more than 50 expeditions to remote regions of the Earth to paint predators and prey close to one another in their natural habitats.[5] In some works they solicit "assistance" from the subject in the form of pawprints or bite-marks.[4] Their joint work has been exhibited internationally in galleries including the Simon Dickinson[6] and Briggs Robinson[7] galleries in New York, and the Natural History Museum in London.[3]

Career

Over more than three decades, Olly and Suzi have been working together to capture the spirits of the animals they see, and tell a story. They have been painting animals in the wild since 1989, and began to work with the animals in 1994 when they had the idea to get the animal to interact with the painting. This interaction has happened in many different ways: paw prints, bite marks, belly marks, licking, and on occasion, destroying the painting completely.[8]

On their expeditions Olly and Suzi try to work with research scientists, ecologists, biologists and conservationists as much as they can in order to raise awareness about the animals they paint.

Personal life

Suzi Winstanley lives with English musician Damon Albarn with whom she has a daughter called Missy.[9]

Bibliography
  • Arctic, Desert, Ocean, Jungle, 2003, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (ISBN 0810942666)

References
  1. suzi, olly and (9 September 2018), Olly & Suzi BBC Storyville Documentary, retrieved 20 March 2022
  2. "Where the wild things are". the Guardian. 15 July 2001. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  3. Kate Mikhail (15 July 2001). Where the wild things are. The Observer; accessed August 2013.
  4. Love, Emma (8 January 2009). "Suzi Winstanley: An artist with roar talent". The Independent. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
  5. "Olly and Suzi biography". ollysuzi.com. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
  6. "Olly and Suzi: 68 Degrees North". 20 November 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
  7. "Olly & Suzi: Arctic Desert Ocean Jungle". 8 May 2003. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
  8. "BBC Four - Storyville, Wild Art: Olly and Suzi Paint Predators". BBC. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  9. "Damon Albarn". Esquire. January 2000.


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