It is with great sadness to announce the passing of Sue Moffitt. She died
peacefully on 4th February surrounded by family after a long battle with cancer.

Donations welcome to her chosen charities.

Tynedale Hospice at Home charity donation

St Oswald's Hospice charity donation

Macmillan Cancer Support Charity donation

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Born in Corbridge Northumberland, Sue studied at Newcastle College for a Diploma in Art and Design, and then went on to complete a BA(hons) Fine Art at Sunderland University.

Brought up on a large dairy farm, Sue was always surrounded by farm animals and wildlife - always feeling rooted to the natural world.

Her fascination and interest was with the relationship between man and animal, especially with regard to communication, intelligence, perception and interaction. Her strong sense of connection with animals, rooting her to the natural world, became the theme for her artwork and continued to be her greatest source of inspiration for her work over the years. 

Westside Contemporary was run by Sue and her husband Roy Sturgeon. Roy died in 2016, and Sue continued to run the business with the help of fellow director and son, William Anderson, and daughter Lucy Hick, until Sue also sadly passed, in 2023.

Sue was immensely proud of her children, Lucy, Annabel & William, and loved the fact that her grandchildren - Jasper, Isabella, Arthur, Edith & Wilf - are following in her footsteps with a love of animals and for the Northumbrian countryside.

“In the very earliest time

When both people and animals lived on earth

A person could become an animal if he wanted to

And an animal could become a human being.

Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals

And there was no difference.

All spoke the same language.

That was the time when words were like magic.

The human mind had mysterious powers.

A word spoken by chance

Might have strange consequences.

It would suddenly come alive

And what people wanted to happen, could happen-

All you had to do was say it.

Nobody could explain this:

That’s the way it was.”

- Magic Words is an anonymous Eskimo poem