Susan is exhibiting her Bird Portaits for the first time at Hole In The Wall Gallery in Ennis, Montana. Susan has been a contemporary and often abstract painter with a long history of study, association, and friendship with Traditional and Contemporary Asian Master Painters. Through them she learned how valuable it is to “become your subject.” Here are new paintings depicting her relationship with each bird whom she has observed, with great interest, in its own environment. Her mentors for these paintings are Robert Bateman and Roger Tory Peterson. “Although, we think of Bateman and Peterson as 'illustrators', a close encounter with their viewpoints tells us that their goal was to capture the 'spirit of the bird'. All of the paintings are done freehand without sketches or studies after much observation. I vary the density of the pigments on the canvas to achieve transparent and opaque areas. If you have seen my paintings on Chinese paper, you might see a similarity in my concern with the quality of light. My goal is also to illuminate the 'spirit of the bird.' I have found many of these birds in my home state of Minnesota, Sand Lane Nature Preserve, SD; the Bosque del Apache, NM; and Yellowstone National Park. Many of these places are supported by many of us with a desire to preserve our natural environment. This show is for all those feathered creatures that are able to fly free above us all."
