Following an honours degree in scientific illustration and working as a freelance artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, I was granted a Fellowship in 1986 to collect and record the orchids of the Solomon Islands for a scientific book. I visited remote parts of the country to collect living material, take photographs, make colour notes and extensive pen and ink microscope drawings, recording the plants for posterity and educational purposes. All the material collected – plant based, illustrative and photographic – went towards completing the publication and remains within Kew collections. The illustrations have been used in subsequent Kew publications.

In recognition of the travel, research and new species collections, I was honoured to have an orchid named after me: Coelogyne susanne.

I continued to work as a scientific illustrator and in recent years I have worked on a self-funded project to travel, mainly in the Middle East, to collect material for the illustrations of another Kew publication: Plants of the Qur'an. Working with the author, with new research and illustrations, the publication is the first in history in its format.