Since childhood Susan Halls has been intrigued by animals and curious about their character. Growing up in the 1960s in a traditional small town in Kent, England, the animals she saw in the English countryside were both her inspiration and her friends. She not only drew, but drew strength from them and was constantly painting and modeling variations of what she saw as a child in the surrounding landscape.

Susan Halls’ animal sculptures convey "a kind of animal truth" rather than their mere appearance. Dogs, horses, birds, pigs and rabbits are of major interest, although other species also appear. She believes her strong connection to animals results in them being the dominant subject in the work.

All ceramic techniques fascinate Susan Halls, allowing her to use whatever process best suits the subject to express and develop the form. Paper-clay mixed with nylon fiber is a staple, as it can be abstracted to suggest only a minimum reference to the animal. Her firing techniques are based in tradition yet varied and innovative, using sawdust, smoke and wood. Her work often incorporates metal elements such as nails and shards of steel.

Susan Halls was awarded a Designers Guild Scholarship in 1989 to study petrified remains at Herculaneum and Pompeii in Italy. Susan is the author of Ceramics for Beginners: Animals & Figures (Lark). Her work has exhibited widely throughout the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe, including: The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Aberystwyth University, Wales; Manchester Metropolitan University, England; The Shigaraki Ceramic Center, Japan; and The Contemporary Art Society, London. She lives in Cornwall, England. Workshops include International Ceramics Centre Hungary, Clay Art Center, NY, USA and Penland School of Crafts NC, USA.