DATELINE: 6th November 2000
MARINE ART
Octogenarian finds artistic inspiration using a snorkel
She's a remarkable lady: Susan Williams-Ellis is 82 and, as founder of the world-famous Portmeirion Potteries in Wales, achieved enormous success as a pottery designer and producer.
For 45 years she has also donned wetsuit, mask and snorkel and floated on the surface to draw marine scenes on a board, before returning ashore to complete her works in oils.
"I learned to scuba dive in about 1955, but I found that the bubbles would frighten away the fish," Susan tells Diver. "Also, I like to stay in the water sometimes for up to three or four hours, and scuba did not give me enough time."
Reverting to a snorkel solved both problems, Susan floating unobtrusively on the surface to eye her subjects at will.
"When I started, oils weren't easily available and I finished my paintings using Max Factor stage make-up! But later I was able to use oil pastels, which I've employed ever since."
For years Susan dived off British shores, but in 1978 she snorkelled for the first time in the tropics, off Fiji. Since then she has travelled all over the world with her husband Euan, recording underwater scenes in the Caribbean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, the Great Barrier Reef, Micronesia and the Pacific. "Palau was particularly sheltered, a lovely place to float and paint," she says.
Marine scenes have never featured on Portmeirion pottery, better known for its flora and butterflies. "I've never found a simple marine pattern that I felt would work on a plate or cup," she says. And she has never been tempted to sell her paintings. "I do it for the love of it."
Susan and her husband set up their business in 1953 when they took over a souvenir shop at Portmeirion. In 1990 the company received the Queen's Award for Export. Today, its largest single market is the USA, with sales exceeding £20 million. Susan's daughter, Anwyl, now oversees design of the ranges, but Susan still designs shapes for production. As with her underwater sketching, she's not about to give it up.