Sue Rhodes-Simpson

Portrait of Sue Rhodes-Simpson

I discovered batik around 30 years ago, at a time when I was in real need of something calming and meditative. This remarkable craft has woven in and out of my life ever since, and I returned to it with renewed focus in 2018, when I opened my studio, Attic Batik. There’s something uniquely satisfying about working with a resist medium; thinking in reverse, building an image from light to dark, and watching it evolve layer by layer. It’s a quiet, solitary challenge, and for me, a balancing act between control and the art of letting go. When the wax resist is finally removed and the whole truth of the image revealed, there’s always a moment of transformation that makes my heart sing!

Alongside this contemplative and contemporary art practice, I am also engaged in personal spiritual inquiry & reflections. Not through fixed dogma, but as a daily exploration of what it means to be human, conscious, and connected. My work explores the dual forces at play in life: chaos and order, inner and outer worlds, dark and light, and so on. I’m especially drawn to the meeting points of these apparent opposites: the paradoxes, tensions, and unexpected harmonies. I’ve found that what can sometimes appear as polarity is often a unity of opposites, or coincidentia oppositorum - complementary rather than conflicting, the yin and yang of life. The rhythm of repeated pattern also plays an important role in my work, bringing both a sense of structure and a meditative, almost mantra-like quality that deepens the contemplative process. I aim to reflect all these musings as a continuous thread throughout my work.

I teach small batik classes from my home-studio Attic Batik in Ripley, Derbyshire, UK, as well as teaching larger groups & societies at other venues across the Midlands and the North of England. Please contact me for further details at www.atticbatik.com