Susan’s many interests, as well as a willingness to challenge herself by exploring a variety of subject matter and techniques, help her produce artwork that’s fresh and alive. Though she may move from genre to genre, her style and industry don’t change. Each of the overviews given on this page is followed by a link to artwork specific to the genre and approach described.
View Artwork
Abstract
Usually, Susan's abstract works are as soothing to create as they are to view. They give her a chance to explore and play with color, form, and texture, without feeling compelled to identify symbols or messages. Representational and figurative work, in Susan's experience, can prove a lot more demanding, not only for the artist creating it, but for viewers too.
View Abstract Artwork
Susan has been a prolific doodler for as long as she can remember. No matter the time or place, she believes that doodling can help validate and transform inner thoughts and feelings. It also tends to reflect the influences of familiar, as well as changing, surroundings. Susan's doodle creations are purposeful by chance, but appealing by design. They also help dispel negative connotations provided by conventional dictionary definitions.
Times English Dictionary and Thesaurus, HarperCollins (2000), four definitions for "doodle"
1. to scribble or draw aimlessly
2. to play or improvise idly
3. to dawdle or waste time
4. a shape, picture, etc. drawn aimlessly
"Organic Art" is the name Susan has given to her personal brand of abstraction. It describes a method and style that seem to have developed from her natural pension for doodling, or "doodlemania," as just described. Looking back, Susan realizes that her earlier doodles appear somewhat unidimensional and contrived. She'd work on a specific piece (drawing then coloring) until it was finished. Her later doodles, she realizes, are more evolved and organic. Not only do they use paint, (not just drawing media), but because of the greater randomness with which they are developed, their creator is moved beyond familiar comfort zones. Her experimentation leads to surprises, even magical moments. Since a number of pieces are usually developed simultaneously (regardless of media) in multiple layers and without a particular plan, there's less deliberateness and deliberation. The artwork feels more alive—a dynamic organism leading the way.
1. Favor spontaneity over planning
2. Go layer by layer, detail by detail
3. Welcome surprise (don't force)
4. Paint the background first—till the canvas is covered
6. Have fun making twirling swirling strokes to use as guides
7. Play with the paint (or other media)
8. Experiment with colors, brushstrokes, shapes, composition
9. Go slowly, carefully, and tidily
10. Turn the canvas around , then add details from different angles
11. Step forward and back to see the whole picture
12. Make every fresh painting (or coloring) session a new beginning
Susan's prolific sketch book creations outside of the studio, in Florence at the Biennale (in 2007) and on other adjacent travels, she thinks, helped prompt changes in her style and foci (even if unconscious). In life, Susan remarks, that we do things over and again till we've had enough of them. This was likely the case with her more familiar doodles. She'd reached the point where she'd become tired of repeating. As response, and almost automatically, she started to make modifications, Once the doodles in her sketchbook were looser, Susan noticed, in the confines of her studio, that her painting style had altered as well. Abstract work from 2008 on reflects a greater sense of freedom and risk-taking.
Susan is available for portrait commissions, of human as well as of animal kind. Her diptych of Nathalie Lambert (Canadian Olympic Team Leader) and triptych of Alex Baumann (Chief Technical Officer of Canada's Own the Podium initiative) was created to help celebrate the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, held in Vancouver. It was part of the Portrait Society of Canada's spring show, Canadian Olympic Athletes: A Dialogue in Art.
Susan believes that we are different people on different days, artist as well as painting model. Sometimes, what's going on for us inside, shows outside. Other times, superficial details appear more significant. Everyone has their idiosyncrasies. Capturing them is important to her. Most of the faces and figures she creates do resemble their owners in some way, even those that are caricature-like. Susan doesn't usually start with a plan, just focuses on the features she finds the most intriguing at the time of painting, and goes from there.
View Portraiture
Poodle pals, Lev and Sage, are a huge part of Susan's life. There's barely a painting they haven't witnessed her create. Initially, she wondered if she'd be able to represent them appropriately. But, through their many hours of gazing (being there for her), she lost the fear. As with the human faces she depicts, her Poodles display different traits depending on time, place, and circumstances—Susan's as well as their own. No matter the images that emerge, Lev and Sage are always happy to admire themselves/be admired.
View Poodle Artwork
Susan loves animals! However, the domestic variety are a little easier to get up close and personal with than the wild. Spending time with Poodle Pals, Lev and Sage, has helped prepare Susan notice to notice the details when painting some of her favorite African beasts: elephants, giraffes, lions, and zebra. As elsewhere in her work, whimsy, realism, expressionism, and color dominate in their portrayal.
View Animal Artwork
New in 2010! Susan is back to painting landscapes—and surprising even herself. A block has been lifted! Some people don’t draw or paint because they have had a bad experience at school. A teacher has told them “you’re hopeless,” and that idea sticks. Susan relates! She attempted to get into landscape classes at the Museum School, year after year, turned down by an instructor who wasn’t prepared to give her a chance. Half a decade later, a springtime trip to the San Fancisco Bay area seems to have boosted her confidence. The need to paint the best of what our environment has to offer reignited, Susan is excited to be able to paint places she’d rather be—settings that soothe, fill with awe, or motivate. And, regardless of genre, her style remains easily identifiable. Even bad weather days have appeal due to this artist’s perpetual focus on the positive. Her dashes of whimsy and color turn a gloomy day along the Pacific Highway’s 17 mile Drive into a fantastical experience. This, her first attempt at landscape painting in a very long time, entices her to want to do more!
View Landscapes
Most people give, receive, buy, grow, or gather flowers at some point, and have pleasant associations with them. Susan's spontaneous enhancement of floral colors and forms adds intensity and power—hopefully enabling viewers to recall positive meanings and associations. Pansies, roses, tulips, and lilies, in particular, are some of Susan's favorites to paint.
View Floral Artwork
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 Susan's 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 she creates.
Before "high protein" competed with "low carb/no carb" diets, fruit and vegetables were health/weight conscious eaters' first choice. Fruit and vegetables being refreshing and tasty, are (usually) pleasing to the eye: perhaps why their colors, forms, and symbolism have preoccupied still-life painters for generations. Susan's fruit and vegetable paintings aren't still-lives in the traditional sense. She turns them into landscapes of sorts. Also, instead of being overly concerned with composition, juxtaposition, and exactitude, Susan tends to focus on magnification and exaggeration. She likes to get in touch with what she's painting and feeling—be almost right in there with it.
View Food Artwork
Sometimes an image calls out to Susan to be painted—even if it doesn't have an "f" name (is not a floral, food, or fruit/vegetable). Susan's more randomly selected subject-matter tends to tends to be special or intriguing in some way—have sentimental value, technical challenges or unique characteristics.
View Sentimental and Intriguing Artwork
Susan's small works measure 12 inches square and under, and usually emerge in groups or series. They show finer detailing, not always possible in larger works. They are also intended to fit the spaces and budgets of a wider audience. Susan believes that quality original fine art should be accessible to and collectable by everyone. Creating small works provides opportunities to help make this possible. Many of Susan's small works resemble her sketchbook doodles, and their translation from paper to canvas is interesting.
View Small Works
Studio
STUDIO ASSISTANTS, LEV AND SAGE
Lev with Leo, Animal Magic
Lev: My Mummy's an Artist, 1
Sage with Bella, Animal Magic
My mummy's an Artist, 2