Susan Somerset Larsson
Books – Art – Spirituality – poetry
I love fantasy, either reading or drawing pictures from another time and place has always been thrilling for me. I love to make up stories as they seem to come so easily to me.
Living in Paris France during 1974 to 1979 gave me the incentive to paint fantasy pictures; it took a while to learn the French language properly so I would paint my particular style of drawings as an expression of the emotions I was feeling at the time. As a family, we later moved with my husband and two children to America where we settled into Los Angeles California, a beach and roller-skating lifestyle. As I worked for Bobbie Leonard Interior designer, my boys went to school and my husband worked as a journalist traveling all over the country. I spent a lot of time painting my pictures during his absence. Four years later I returned home to England with my youngest son, and later on I remarried.
During this new phase of my new life, I became surrounded by amazing women who were interested in the New Age in healing and crystals and all kinds of divination techniques. I would go along to psychic fairs observing how people loved Tarot and the picture reading technique. I developed my own new way of reading pictures by painting pictures for them and translating those pictures. This unusual work developed over time, as I translated a lot of paintings for people. I began to accumulate many paintings that have been stored catalogued and indexed.
Now, as I am retired, I am compiling books about the pictures I painted and gathered over the years. Those that I painted for other people are called Power Pictures. While those I painted about my own personal journey are Personal Paintings.
My paintings are very diverse and move about in time and space; they touch on hundreds of subjects. I was a Yoga teacher for many years incorporating my knowledge on Hinduism and Yoga into the paintings. The first book, Look Inside, deals with dilemmas people may encounter during their lifetime. Looking at different aspects of different people is informative, fun and interesting. I do wonder if people are ready to connect with my work yet, and I hope they do.
Books and other products
Reviews
I found the gentle wisdom in the narrative and poetry calming and enlightening, and it reminded me not to take anything at face value.
Like me, I’m sure all readers will find it difficult to resist studying the paintings and find their own interpretations. I feel that this book would make an excellent educational tool on which to encourage others to learn to look deeper into themselves.
Elizabeth K.
I really love each of the paintings and enjoyed the exchange and interpretations from Jane and Sue, and I think it works well as a format. I read it in one go and found it engaging, if a bit overwhelming in its intensity, so, possibly better consumed in sections.
I’m sure that there are many people without my mental need for completeness out there, that will find the book deeply insightful, fascinating and enjoyable (as I did) and wish to understand more about Sue’s gift for exploring the mysteries of the subconscious.
Bill J.
Today, 9th November 1999, Sue asked me what I felt about typing the stories of the pictures – what had I got out of it? As the pictures have opened up so much for me, I am going to try to put some of it down on paper.
I have been given insights about myself and people in general, either when Sue does the reading, or afterwards when I am typing it up. I find that Sue’s pictures have a relevance for me as well as the person they were painted for. I think Sue finds it so as well. Some of them touch on aspects of my own life and by seeing them, and hearing the reading, it brings things out into the open what I had perhaps kept hidden.
But even if there is no obvious relevance to me, on hearing the readings, I begin to feel that I know the person in a way that I have never known anybody before. This has been a great help to me in relating to people and being able to open myself up to other people. It has helped me to see people in a different way, a special way, to see more than the superficial front that is usually shown.
This project with Sue has been part of a healing path that I had already been struggling along. I had become ill nearly six years before and my whole life had changed. I could not work; I felt ill all the time; I had no energy. I lost touch with who I was and how I related to people. My confidence in all aspects of life plummeted. Gradually I recovered physically but, socially and spiritually, I was still inept. Working with Sue and her pictures has changed me a lot. I feel livelier and chattier and less withdrawn and fearful of what other people might think about me.
Jane