ARTIST STATEMENT

Hello. I am a self-taught and professional full time watercolor artist. My art is collected nationally and internationally. I have won local awards and one international award, Canson of Paris. I have been juried into many fine art shows. I am a 65 yo divorced mother of a wonderful adult son.

I feel like the lotus that starts in the mud and eventually grows a stalk above the mud that blossoms into a flower. I had an extremely abusive and traumatic childhood and some 6 decades later I can see where tremendous spiritual awakening in the 80's has increased my love of creating, my understanding of myself and my place in the universe.

Spirituality has been part of my life as far back as I can remember.
When one lives in the mud of physical and emotional abuse, it really helps to escape into an imaginary world, be another (imaginary) person also be free in the beautiful gifts of mother nature. I spent a lot of time outdoors taking in every bit of nature and day dreaming. I even loved being outdoors during the day and at night and imagined flying up to the stars.

As far back as I can remember I have always been creative in some way and expressed that in many ways over the years. My creativity was not encouraged or valued by my family. Like the lotus I grew my stem out of the mud anyway and see my flower is made up of the many different petals like the lotus has.

There is a part of me in all of my art and it's influenced by different parts of myself. It will always have a common theme as far as it having a spiritual uplifting way that I feel when I create and want to share with others.

I love vivid watercolors and using complementary colors making the colors very bright. What watercolor does naturally is very exciting. It's transparency allows so many different ways to use it and luminosity when light hits the paper beneath it and comes shining back. The way it blends and the way it blooms. Granulation is another favorite of mine.

I like to use watercolors made from plants, semi-precious stones, or good old dirt, like the kind from Sedona, AZ. I use mostly Winsor & Newton Professional quality watercolors and some Daniel Smith. I choose colors that have an extremely high permanancy factor.
I use Arches from France watercolor paper, and preferably the 300# Hot Press. I love the way watercolor flows on it and the colors seem more bright.

I usually do a small sketch with an HB pencil then a final full size sketch. After I am finished with the painting I may erase all of the sketch or leave some of the pencil lines if I feel they add to the final product.
Most of the time I use the white of the paper for any areas that need to be white.

My lifelong and day to day experiences are my inspiration. I own an African Grey parrot, spend a lot of time at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. I have been to all of the national parks west and hiked the John Muir Trail. I love visiting the sierras in California and Nevada and fly fishing. I have owned horses, birds, cats, dogs, and tropical fish. I enjoy growing flowers like roses, gladiolas, dahlias, iris, violets, cactus and succulents. Astronomy and meteorology are my avocation of which I hope to do a series paintings on. Now I paint full time and feel so very grateful that I am able to do so

A lot to read, but I love sharing some of myself with those who express an interest in my art. Thank you so very much for stopping by. Please feel free to email me with any comments or questions. I am catching up on inventory after a long illness, but please check back frequently. Thank you! Susie