susan parish adam
I am a child of the seventies raised primarily in the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut. Every summer growing up, I longed to spend time with my grandmother, a painter, who lived on the coast of Maine. Here she taught me a particular way of seeing the world, which was filled with color and beauty, and from that period on, I was determined to live in it. Always creative, I did not start painting until college, where I met my husband of thirty years, also a painter, and haven’t stopped since. From the start of my career, making a living as a full-time painter was a priority, so I developed a commissioned portrait business, and for the past twenty years, I have run a successful seasonal gallery.
My oil paintings straddle the line between abstraction and realism using bold graphics to create a quiet landscape. I rely on expressive curves to evoke an emotional response. Straight lines are seldom found.
I start with a photograph. Using an ipad, I create a digital sketch on top of the photo. My process begins with removing details followed by creating eye-catching shapes and sensuous curves to make the composition flow and then settle.
I have used the same palette of six colors and a white since graduating from college with an art degree and starting life as a full-time painter. This has led to an acute sense of color mixing.
Over the years my paintings have been an exploration of shape and color as a visual language, an investigation into two extremes co-existing; abstraction and representation, positive and negative space, energy and calmness….Where is the line? Is there a line?