“ There was so much love in the little house, it taught me to seek God given talents and I am blessed to have found my gift.” Susie Varner

Susie Varner

The western artist, Susie Varner says as a child with ADD it was difficult to be still, but put a pencil in her hand and she could sit for hours! Some might even say Susie was born with a pencil in her hand, for as long as she can remember she longed for a horse, drawing them was the next best thing. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma; #7 out of ten children in a two bedroom house, it was often chaotic and a spot in a corner with scrap paper and a pencil gave her solace. Susie says there was so much love in that little house, it taught her to seek God given talents and she feels blessed to have found her gift. Much of her inspiration comes from living in the country and owning horses. As a child, she copied art from western artists, Charles Russell and Frederic Remington and feels that is where her love for western art comes from.

She attended WTSU in Canyon, TX, for 2 years as an art major. Starting a family, working and moving with her husband's career didn’t leave much time for art, but in 2014 she started painting again and considers herself mostly self-taught. Susie primarily paints with oils, acrylics, watercolors and more recently teaching herself digital art. Her subjects are most often horses and western landscapes; she loves bold pops of color and simplistic style.

Susie feels that her biggest accomplishment was in 2019 painting, a 5 ' fiberglass guitar for Art in Public Places, Rockwall, Tx. This was such a challenge, but feels very rewarding when people see it in the historic downtown square and send her a ‘selfie’ with the guitar or tag her on social media.

She was featured in a coffee table book supporting the 5% of women artists, titled "Twenty-five Dallas Women Artists" , a second coffee table book titled "New Beginnings" and illustrator of T.W. Parnell's Postal Exam books. Susie is currently living in Edmond, Ok and is now Artists Demo Chairman of Edmond Art Association and was previously Vice President and Social Media Chairman of Rockwall Art League, Member of Cowgirl Artists of America, Member of Art Connection of East Texas, Academy of Western Artists and Western Heritage Artists in Great Falls, MT. Mrs. Varner was Co-Chairman and Curator for Rockwall Art League 2020 Fall Show and Sale.

Professional Affiliations:

Women Artists of the West March 2025
Galleries
Valerosa Gallery
108 East 8th St
Tyler, Texas 75701
1-903-504-5249
Art Of A Cowboy Gallery
Terra Rosa Art Gallery and Creative Space
111 E. Oklahoma
Guthrie, Oklahoma 73034
405-474-1973

“Fender Bender”

What a great experience being chosen to represent Rockwall Art in Public Places to paint a 5 foot fiberglass guitar. The city is named the Free Live Music Capital of North Texas. While painting the guitar, I was thinking about a conversation that I had with my dad in my teens. He was asking me questions to prepare for my drivers license and he asked what I would do if I were driving on the highway and a cow suddenly crossed the road. I hastily answered that I would swerve to miss it. His reply was "it's always better to have a fender bender than to flip upside down because you swerved off the road." While painting, this conversation kept surfacing in my mind and I thought, if this bull were on the road, it would definitely be a fender bender, thus the name, Fender Bender.

Susie Varner Website

Contact Susie
Women Artists of the West

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