Susannah Nelson Australian, Waramungu, Warlmanpa, 1943-2022

Susan first learnt how to paint acrylic in the small mission school (the Bangalow) just outside of Alice Springs where she spent her years as a young girl. Pastor Long gave the children their posters depicting Christian scenes in basic outline. The illustrations were coloured in by the children who thereby learnt the story of the Bible pictorially. Here began Susan’s love of paint and fascination with God’s story. Every Wednesday and Sunday night in Tennant Creek, Susan takes these paintings to church for sharing. Here she stands out front with one of these several rolled canvases, whose story she sings out to the congregation, sometimes with great theatrics. Sharing paintings are often completed in haste – taken home from the studio to be finished in her Mulga Camp home.