At Home with...artist Susan Brown

Describe your home style? I like purity of line, clean crisp edges, the use of natural materials, the play with space and form and the shadows cast by manipulating light. I like white spaces that form the backdrop to artefacts and artworks. Rhythm, texture, patterns, scale and light are all things that are part of my work and my house.

What is your favourite piece of furniture? My love of contemporary furniture came not from art school but my first job – a Saturday job working at West Park Interiors in Harrogate. I was introduced to Interlubke, Cassina, B&B Italia and Eames. I fell in love with them all. I have collected a few, including a Sinbad chair by Magistretti, which is my favourite. It looks larger than life and my nephew and niece loved to curl up in it when they were little.

Where do you shop for homeware? I like Fulham Road in London; contemporary shops found in many European cities; The Home at Salts Mill, Saltaire; Illume Lighting in Sheffield; Ralph Capper in Manchester; Redbrick Mill in Batley, which has Bo-Concept and Heal’s; David Mellor’s shop in Hathersage and any place that sells Alessi.

What is on your interiors wish list? A space that is white and pure, filled with natural light, a beautiful sofa, a sculptural light, a wall unit filled with books and a floating, contemporary, log- burning fire, along with a space for a painting and a small glass surface on which to carefully place precious objets d’art.

Your book features some of London’s best-known buildings and districts. Do you have any favourites? I find myself returning to St Martin in the Fields, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s. I’m not sure why, perhaps it is that they define and shape their space. My favourite restaurant is at the top of the National Portrait Gallery. It has an amazing view over Trafalgar Square.

You plan to create a series of city books featuring your paintings. Do you have a favourite city? I like Venice and Paris. Venice is such a dark, mysterious and opulent city and Paris is a refined and elegant place.

Which other artists do you most admire? I think my love of art first came from finding a book of Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings in the school library and being given a book on the work of Salvador Dali. I love the work of Rachel Whiteread, Lucian Freud, Hockney, Klimt, Jackson Pollock, Schiele, Modigliani, Klee, Bruegel, Francis Bacon and Frida Kahlo, I’m mesmerised by the work of Jenny Saville and I feel lucky to live in close proximity to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the ever-changing exhibitions of beautiful and thought-provoking work.

What and where is your ideal home? My ideal home is in my head, always being sculptured and reshaped.

Susan Brown’s London is available from susanbrownprints.com, galleries and at JR Nicholls bookshop in Denby Dale.