Featured Artist: Susan Outlaw

Spring, oil on Gessobord, 24" x 18", 2012

"Susan's paintings are a response to a scene which has moved her in an emotional or spiritual way, she endures to capture that emotion in paint. She sees beauty in her surroundings and in the every day objects. Light playfully weaves throughout Susan's work allowing the viewer to respond to form, colour and overall composition."

Award winning Canadian artist, Susan Outlaw, captures the beauty of the change in seasons, the rural living and forests around her home in Ancaster, Ontario.  She gives exquisite detail and life to her subjects, bringing out the beauty in the every day.  

Crimson on White, 18" x 24", 2014

Susan began her art journey as a child, knowing early on that she needed to paint.  "I remember in kindergarten starting at an easel and having to go to the block station when my time was up, the disappointment of leaving the painting station still resonates with me,"  she shares.  Susan completed formal education at Sheridan College in Commercial Arts where she took on both fine art and advertising, giving her a basis for both realism and her desire to push her work further and think critically.

Susan paints in both acrylics and oils, preferring oils because of their blending properties and using acrylics often as an underpainting.  Finding Gessobord™ in a local art store in Hamilton, Ontario, Susan says she fell in love with the quality of the surface.  "Ampersand Gessobords are extremely smooth and the surface works well with my painting style.  I find that oils will still sink in to this surface, sometimes allowing me to get away with one layer only, whereas with other boards, the oil remains on top almost like plastic or glass, drying time is longer and challenging to blend."  Gessobord works best for Susan's higher realism works, her finer detailed pieces because of its slight absorbency and smooth surface.  In her looser styles, often landscapes or architectural pieces, Susan leans towards canvas.    

Small Shell, 8"x 10", 2013

Susan recently sold work to the prestigious 47 Park Place Hotel in London and she is represented by Earl's Court Gallery in Hamilton, Ontario.  You can see more of her work online there or at her website and stay in touch with her upcoming shows and exhibits via Twitter.

All things Ampersand,
Karyn Meyer-Berthel
Artist & Social Media Specialist
Ampersand Art Supply

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