DocSusan cares and shares with special updates

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R1: Florals: Most people give, receive, buy, grow, or gather flowers at some point, and have pleasant associations with them. My spontaneous enhancement of floral colors and forms turns up the volume on them—hopefully enabling viewers to recall positive meanings and associations. Pansies, roses, tulips, and lilies, in particular, are some of my favorites to paint.

R2: Food: FOOD, for most of us, signals Fun Obsession Obstacle or Delight, and prompts mixed feelings. Fortunately, a natural inclination to blend realism with whimsy steadies my focus as artist on the positive: food for well-being, that's made and shared with love and care. Notice the hidden, and not so hidden, hearts in many of the offerings I create.

R3: Fruit/Vegetables: Before "high protein" competed against "low carb/no carb" diets, fruit and vegetables were health/weight conscious eaters' first choice. Fruit and vegetables being refreshing and tasty, they're also (usually) pleasing to the eye—perhaps why their colors, forms, and symbolism have preoccupied still-life painters for generations. My fruit and vegetable paintings aren't still-lives in the traditional sense, as explained in the Museum School gallery explanation I turn them into landscapes of sorts. Also, instead of being overly concerned with composition, juxtaposition, and exactitude, I tend to focus on magnification and exaggeration—try to get in touch with what I'm painting (and feeling).

R4: Anything's Possible: Sometimes an image calls out to me to be painted—even if it doesn't have an "f" label (is not a floral, food, or fruit/vegetable). These "no-name images" tend to have their own specialness or intrigue—sentimental value, uniqueness, or technical challenges.

To view more of my representational art, please go to the Florence Biennale gallery on this site.

 

 

©Susan R. Makin, 2008