ARTIST STATEMENT
Susan Cushing’s highly stylized narrative landscapes are inspired by the decade of the 1970’s and reminiscent of the lifestyle photographs of Slim Aarons and the post-modern environmental style of Alex Katz and David Hockney. Susan's paintings are evocative of the world of casual elegance as she beautifully captures the colors and themes of summer on canvas. While these snapshots of life - garden party, elegant country house porch and poolside scenes -- are pleasing to look at, each one is composed of reflections and shadows, light and dark spaces, that are also a metaphor of life. You can't have the bright light without the shadows.
Susan Cushing
You can imagine the conversation. You want to be there. At first glance, you take in the landscape from afar yet you soon realize that you are part of the picture eavesdropping from a voyeur's perspective. You find yourself wanting to linger inside each of the paintings. Being there becomes a hidden mantra. The venues, the dress, the postures, the ease of living bring you back to old movie glamour, that of a charmed life. You are part of a narrative landscape, a portrait of sorts.
Susan’s paintings have many layers as she describes her work “Turning up the volume on color, and using shadow and reflection to create abstract shapes within real settings is what interests me. I love to play with the strong light at the beginning and end of the day to create extreme patterns -- allowing the abstract shapes to shine through as the main subject of the paintings. The colors are saturated. The value is turned way up. The richness of color portrays the rich textures of life. ”
EXHIBITIONS
Susan currently works and lives in New York City, Palm Beach and Quogue. Susan has recently exhibited her works at Nassau County Museum of Art in a new exhibition of Vernacular Visions and also joined Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Georgia O’Keeffe, among others in “Garden Party” an exhibition which highlighted the museum's 145 acre former Frick Estate and had a solo show at the Gallery at the Quogue Library. She has exhibited in other solo exhibitions at Claridge House Gallery in NY, Anne Madonia Antiques & 4 North Main Gallery in Southampton and Foster Gallery in Palm Beach as well as participated in group shows at Studio 13 and The Art Students League in NY.
EDUCATION
Susan graduated from Davidson College with a BA in Fine Arts, followed by studies at Savannah College of Art & Design, The Corcoran School in Washington DC, The Art Barge in Amagansett, NY as well a Scottsdale Artists School in Arizona. Most recently she has studied at the NationaL Academy of Design and The Armory Art Center of Palm Beach. During her years at the Art Students League of NY.
Susan studied under Charles Hinman, Ronnie Landlield, Bill Scharf, Knox Martin, Peter Homitzy and Cornelia Foss.