Sue Leitner with her artwork titled ‘Hairy’. Her vibrant creations are proving popular with locals and lovers of art further afield.
Sue Leitner’s interest in art started during her school days and has continued on since. She did Tech in Harden under teacher Alan McLure and learnt her craft under the talented artist. Sue was painting during the ‘milk can craze’ which swept the country in the 80s and 90s. She said “I had so many of them lined up that I didn’t like doing it anymore. I didn’t paint for ages until my sister Louie asked me if I could paint a cow for my nephew Gus for his 13th birthday.”
Like any artist she is critical of her work. She said, “All of my cows looked like horses so I got Luke (son in law) to come down and tell me what was wrong with that particluar cow. Now I don’t have to get him so often. He would come down and help me with the conformation of the animals. I still paint horses but everyone wants cows.”
Sue had just 4 days to paint her first bovine masterpiece and had to find some paint and a canvas. She said “I don’t know how many I have painted now, not a hundred but I have done bits and pieces of everything including alpacas.” Sue was painting them and giving them away but decided she would see if she could sell them. Sue said “I run around on Thursday night and Friday morning and get everything done which frees me up to paint or ride my horses.”
Some of her work is sitting in the Muddy Duck in Murrumburrah, however, Sue’s paintings have since attracted attention from Sydney. Two of her pieces will be appearing in Pymble at Peter Wrights gallery where he will see if he can sell them to a city market as statement pieces. She said “I was pretty chuffed. It was nice of him to like them and take a couple of them.” Sue said prices vary on how big each piece is, “At the moment I Like to play around with them but I don’t want it to be a chore, I can sometimes get 2 or 3 done in a week’s holidays.”
Sue’s husband Heinz, converted an outside building into her studio which is nice and cosy due to the installation of a heater in the room. She is all set up and said she doesn’t have to clean up paint in the house. Sue has painted some of her own animals and tweaked them. “I kind of like them if they are bit mad and colourful.
I would like to have a go at a Donkey but everyone seems to be after Cows.” Sue’s daughter Kristy gives her some ideas about colours which include blues, oranges and pinks. Sue’s granddaughters often name the pieces each which goes on the ear tag as an interesting way to title the work. She has also turned to Facebook to help name some of the animals with suggestions often ending up as names. Sue often goes next door and takes some pictures of the neighbours cows for inspiration. She said “As long as people look at them and smile, I’m happy. That’s all you can ask for.”
You will know when you see one of Sue’s masterpieces. They definitely have a wow factor.
