Featured Artist Susan Patton

Oil painter Susan Patton offers a nostalgic look at life through her warmly inviting, ethereal artwork. Visit her website to see more.

 

 

I began working as a professional, full-time artist in 2017, devoting six days a week and most of my waking time to either painting, studying or preparing to teach workshops.

 

 

I come from a family with a lineage of artists. My grandfather was an undiscovered artist. My mother, Dot Courson, is currently an award-winning professional artist. I feel extremely grateful for the support and advice she has given as I’ve pursued this career in art.

 

 

I enjoy painting people, still life and plein air. I have juried into multiple national and international shows and have won awards for my work.

 

 

My favorite part of being an artist is teaching oil painting workshops. I love to teach! I worked as a physical therapist for twenty years before transitioning to full time art. As a P.T., I was able to also observe, instruct and encourage people. Now I do the same when I teach art workshops.

 

 

Besides teaching oil painting, I am also known for painting people—portraits as well as figurative work. I have closely observed people all of my life. I’m constantly studying how to improve painting them.

 

 

I also think a lot about new ways to teach my students in a way that is engaging. My goal in every workshop is for the students to be challenged and strengthened in a specific area that helps them grow.

 

 

I have learned under many artists, such as Roger Dale Brown, John Pototschnik and Dawn Whitelaw, as well as Kim English, Kenn Backhaus and Michael Shane Neal.

 

 

As a student, I am also greatly inspired by John Singer Sargeant, partly because Neal and Whitelaw studied under Everett Raymond Kinstler, whose teachers included Sargeant. I admire Sargeant’s art, and study his work and technique often.

 

 

Much of what I enjoy painting is based on memories of growing up around my grandparent’s farm and the nostalgia I feel around my home.

 

 

I think the best art is created using intellect along with good technique and skill, but which also leaves a little bit of the soul of the artist in the picture—art that is created like a hymn that sings the melody of the heart.

 

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