Artist : Susan Duke Shreveport, La

Windy Day in the Garden is 20" X 24" 

Oil on canvas

Artist Statement:

When I am painting, I lose myself in the colors — the intricate interactions of the fluid oil pigments are a constant and complete fascination to me.   I love to use the oil paint lavishly – to paint with enthusiastic abandon.  The abstract quality of both the individual and intersecting strokes create a world unto themselves, a microcosm of experience, introspection and joy.

Although my painting style is deeply rooted in French Impressionism, it is also definitely an evolving hybrid.  I have chosen to create my original works in oil on canvas, applied with passionate palette knife strokes. The juxtaposition of freedom and control in this style of painting convey and relate to the contrasts and continuums that give our lives both excitement and balance.

Quality of both expression and craftsmanship are equally important to me.  I prefer the immediacy of painting with palette knives (generally employed to mix paints), to most convincingly convey the powerful expressive qualities of the oil medium.  Palette knife technique imparts a range of unique variations in texture from sheer to impasto.  These appear to alter in various light affording ever-changing glimpses of new detail, depth and color.

I love our earth home and want to express that intensely deep spiritual feeling which inherently connects all of us to each other and to our environment.   The essential essence of each painting simultaneously commemorates a particular place in time and reaches for the timeless.