Susan Slomski • Studio Stories
Susan Slomski
Bringing the Outside In
I painted my first large scale oil in High School, 36"x36", a still-life with the classic blue and white checkered cloth in draping folds. It was part of a portfolio review of my work that won the Blue Ribbon Award for young artists from Massachusetts College of Art. The painting hung in the kitchen of my parents home for decades. Years later, I am still partial to large canvases. There is something about the kinesthetic of standing in front of the canvas, arm out stretched moving across the expanse of muted white. Painting is a physical endeavor. I like what the large scale affords me: Bold compositions, expressions that seek the viewers eye. There is a lot of room for me to say what I am feeling.
At the same time, over the past few years, I am creating small 8"x8" paintings on wood panel. These are energetic and a lot of fun. I enjoy the immediacy of the small pieces and the challenge to keep brush marks loose and the colors clean. Often, these are a fast seller.
Whether large scale or small, I am always employing color theory, Triads or Tetrads, with a new dimension of limiting pallette. These two theoretical approaches together allow me to create dynamic colorful works that are visually pleasing to the human eye. It is a magnificent feeling when the color is working together with composition to create the desired effect. The large painting I am presenting here is entitled 'The Hills of the Western Slope', 24x36. It was debuted in March at the Open Studios Gallery at Cheyenne's Art Walk where I was also their Featured Artist. The piece elicited wonderful commentary and curiosity, folks felt as if they had been to the place itself some adding, "I know where that is".
I titled this studio story "Bringing the Outside In" as this is how I view my work - I carry my experience and engagement with the Western landscape back into the studio where the mystique and the grandeur are expressed on canvas, immortalized in both large and small scale works, founded in color theory.
~Susan Slomski
