SusanGleason.Art
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Peace
Watercolor
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At our first house in California, I had a beautiful rose garden. My favorite was a variety of the Peace rose in this beautiful yellow and orange. The flowers were quite large and looked magnificent as they caught the light of the late afternoon sun. As this rose came to life on my paper, I thought of those early days in California when my life was unfolding. This was the first of a series of dark background paintings I did, which make the vibrant yellows and oranges pop off the page. I mix the backgrounds using ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, often adding a touch of the subject's main color into areas of the background to keep it from looking flat.
I See You
Watercolor
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This painting was done for a competition titled "Wild Thing, You Make My Heart Sing." I have always been fascinated with the big cats. I think leopards and cheetahs are among the most beautiful and graceful animals on earth. We have always had cats in our family and I often wonder what is going on behind those eyes. How do they see things and what do they think? Whatever this one is seeing, I think it could possibly soon be breakfast.
African Elephant
Watercolor
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One day on our second trip to Africa, our guide encountered a lone bull elephant that had been separated from his pack. He faced our open jeep head on and we felt very small and sat very still. I will never forget those large ears flapping back and forth, tapping his front foot and making sure we knew who was boss while he decided his next move. Elephants and hippos look so imposingly huge (an adult male elephant can weigh up to 15,000 pounds) that you think they would move slowly and laboriously. Think again. These creatures are powerful and swift, and command great respect in the wild.
Two and a Half Pairs
Watercolor
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I enjoy playing cards, and have always had an affinity for math, and when I looked at this work with the half pear on the right side of the work - the title came to me using pairs of pears. This work, similar to the Peace rose, is done using yellow with hues of green and orange which are adjacent on the color wheel and produce a soft, unified rendering of the pears and leaf. The work gains its pop from the dark background, allowing the bright pears to stand out. I was particularly pleased with the twisty stem and drying leaf in this work.
Up Close and Personal
Watercolor
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This painting was going to be about the elegant red gladiolas in the bouquet. But when I focused way in on the white carnation catching the last of the sun's rays along the side of its bud and the gently mingling blues and purples reflecting in its white petals, I changed my mind. It was that moment of seeing it up close and personal, not in the shadow of the strikingly red gladiolas, that I saw something different. I sometimes receive a little help while I am painting. Check it out.
Heard It Through the Grapevine
Watercolor
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I was selected for Artist of the Month in March 2022 by the art club to which I have belonged for most of the years since we moved to Arizona and needed to dash out a few paintings for display during this honor. This was a watercolor I drew and painted one evening, which became one of my favorite small paintings. I tend to fuss too much for watercolor work and sometimes under pressure I do better because I am more apt to leave things alone. I edited the reference photo to fade out the background and the dark table almost entirely, leaving only the slightest reflections of the grapes on the shiny table top, and to focus on the light in the grapes and stem.
Desert Shadows
Oil
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During college and for a decade or so after, I dabbled in abstract oils, but left this medium untouched for nearly 50 years. A recent visit to the galleries in Santa Fe reawakened my interest in pursuing oil painting. I love the vibrancy of oil colors, something I don't find equaled in any other medium.
I purchased a skull in Sedona and photographed it for this work. After changing the background numerous timed and finally arriving at this beautiful cobalt dominated color, I decided it needed some grounding and settled upon the Navaho geometric behind the skull. This painting wont a first place in our local 2023 art show.
Two Tickets To Paradise
Acrylic
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A recent art show special challenge dictated creating an artwork based upon songs from the 70's. I love birds of paradise and grew them in my garden in California. Eddie Money recorded his number one hit, Two Tickets To Paradise on his 1977 album, Eddie Money. This seemed like a natural fit to me.
I have recently expanded my artwork to include both acrylics and oils. I find these mediums liberating after years of working in watercolor where correction or a change to the work is difficult at best.
Game of Thorns
Oil
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The name for this painting came from a crossword puzzle based on puns that my oldest brother shared with me. With the play on words fresh in my mind as I worked on this painting, Game of Thorns literally jumped off the canvas.
When my husband and I first moved to Arizona, nearly a dozen years ago, we vowed we would find a way to create a garden absent of thorns. Each year our resolve lessened as we grew accustomed to the beauty of the desert landscape. It became a game of thorns as we added cacti, agave and a wide variety of prickly plants to our landscape.
Reflections of a Gentleman
Oil
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A lit cigar rests delicately on the edge of a glass of whiskey, with wisps of smoke gracefully rising in the air. The whiskey, showcases ice cubes glistening and reflecting light. The deep amber tones of the whiskey contrast with the shadowy background, to create a mood of sophistication and relaxation, embodying the essence of a gentleman’s retreat.
This painting was created on commission for a gentleman's study.
Calm Before the Storm
Oil
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An ominous sky hovering over a tranquil turquoise sea, the duel between tranquility and danger, this painting portrays a sense of imminent change.
A trip to Santa Fe, with its amazingly clear blue skies and abundance of dramatic cloud formations, was the inspiration for the start of this painting. Having spent time sailing the Caribbean with its beautiful turquoise waters, I melded the memories of both into this painting.
Oil
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This cheetah study was done in a long awaited class with Guy Combes, the son of Simon Combes, an artist my husband and met in the 1980s in Carmel, CA. I was thrilled to participate in this 5 day workshop at the Scottsdale Artists School in 2024 and gained valuable knowledge of new techniques.
Huntress
Oil
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Spotting your first big cat early in the morning on safari is spine tingling. As we neared, this cheetah stopped and turned to look over her shoulder at us. These rare, endangered cats with distinctive teardrop markings from their eyes to their mouths are my favorite safari animal.
Santa Fe Sunset
Oil
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A recent summer in Santa Fe provided a wealth of spectacular sunsets to paint. The 7500 foot elevation makes for fabulous cobalt blue skies and unbelievable cloud formations for the light to filter in incredible ways. The size of this piece allows me to really feel the beauty of this daily wonder.
Winds of Change - Dance for Wisdom, Peace and Harmony
Oil
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In my wildest dreams the world is a place of peace and unity. Influenced by Navajo art, this dancer's cape embeds symbols of peace, harmony and wisdom in the arrows, bird, feathers, fire, sun, moon, dragon flies and cactus. The serpent is held back underfoot while wind blows in calm and unity.
Birds in the Midnight Garden
Watercolor
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This was an early painting in my return to watercolor and it sat in my pile of rejects for years. One day I took it out and decided to finish the dark sky. As most paintings do, when I put a mat around it, the piece took on a more respectable look. I went on to create a giclee from the original and it has now earned a place hanging among my later works. There is something about the primitive and less fussy work in this piece that I enjoy.
The Road to Napa
Watercolor
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We lived in Marin just north of San Francisco most of our adult lives and frequented the Napa Valley. The roads between Marin and Napa looked much like this. I remember when the bright yellow mustard grass was in bloom and the way the sun dotted through the trees on the lazy drives north. It was a beautiful place.
I very much liked the way this turned out. The road edges reflect well the tangles of wild grass along these roads and I was particularly pleased with how the road turned out with the smattering of yellow pollen and reflections from the sun and trees. This painting won a first place in a local show with competition against accomplished watercolorists. I was thrilled with the honor.
California Poppy
Watercolor
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A few years ago added Dr. Martin's Liquid Watercolors to my growing arsenal of art gear. I had been hearing about their extra vibrancy due to lack of binding materials. I had also taken an online class, where the instructions included painting on an easel with the brush upside down and letting the water weight carry the paint downward on the paper, blending in ways unlike when the paper is lying flat.
So I set up an easel and it felt strange as I focused more on catching the drips at the bottom of the page than reworking the flower itself. I think it caused me to let the paint do more of what it wanted on its own and not to overwork the painting. I liked the results.
Bearded Iris
Watercolor
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I have always loved flowers that bloom from bulbs. In my parents yard in Virginia where I grew up, the crocuses would poke through the snow as soon as the sun started to hint of spring. These were followed by the daffodils and irises with their vibrant colors and promise of the long, lazy summer to come. I was fascinated with the beards of the iris blooms, looking to me as a child like wildly colored caterpillars.
Here's To You (Home Page)
Watercolor
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This painting started out as an exercise to use salt in some fashion during the painting process. I had some minor experience with salt and knew that it would absorb some of the color off of the paper as it dried. I thought it might create an interesting cork, and tried it on the Ravel cork in the lower right corner of the painting first. I liked the result, and so proceeded to draw the balance of the corks and go to work using a combination of salt, splatters and drips.
The lettering was a bear, as I painted it all with a small brush. I almost lost the whole painting over the Hervé cork, which went badly awry at one point. But I blotted a lot with a few damp tissues and decided some corks are just a little more stained than others. In the end, I think that one adds some character.
Cactus Flower
Watercolor
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This exercise was one of my earliest "Grown Up" watercolors. Somewhere I crossed a line between painting an object on a white background, and painting a completed piece. It was a period of subtle changes. I moved to 300# paper, purchased high quality paints and brushes and gained just a little bit of confidence. Practice helped control blending colors, shades and seeing value.
I was thrilled to create something so vibrant and alive. Yellows, golds and greens were all the rage when I was married back in the dark ages. I spent a life time trying to purge all the bits and pieces of things in green and gold as we all moved to colorless rooms of beige and white and discarded our avocado and gold appliances. But here it is, all bold and bright and gold and green, and I love it.
Plumeria Leaves in the Afternoon Desert Sun
Watercolor
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My husband grows two plumeria plants on our patio in Arizona. We first encountered these beautiful and very fragrant flowers in Hawaii. I had no idea they could possibly survive in the hot and very dry desert. But he manages to save them year after year and they bloom happily with positively gorgeous pink flowers.
The leaves are very thick and sturdy, but as the blooms begin to fade and the plant loses its energy, the leaves dry out and become thin like paper. Eventually they all fall off the plant and every time we are sure it has died. But then after a bit of a rest, it picks back up and goes through the cycle again. I don’t know what is his secret, but my husband makes magic with the plumerias.
When the leaves are drying, they become quite frail and the light shines through them like tracing paper. All of the veins show up and the leaves get to have their moment as stars instead of the flowers.
Out of Africa
Watercolor
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I was profoundly affected by my first trip to Africa. The land, the people, the smells were all so new and different. But the animals captured my heart. This pair of wild zebras greeted us on our first ride out into the Masai Mara and posed so beautifully you would think we were in a zoo.
I have a small 4x6 inch photo sitting on my desk of this duo. I tried to paint them a few years ago and I just wasn't ready. I did an acceptable job on their bodies and stripes, but waited until I was nearly finished to work on the eyes. I got their delicate lashes all wrong and my lovely zebras ended up looking slightly like hookers. So a few years later when I decided to try these beauties again, I worked first on the eyes and then moved on. It was a valuable lesson learned.
Old Guys Rule
Colored Pencil
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I was interested in trying some water reflections and noticed my husband's glasses in the pool one day. I thought they were a perfect test run. I really enjoyed doing this painting as it shaped itself into my husband's face. His mustache is so distinctively him, as are the teeth and lips.
It turned out to be a slightly younger looking version of him as I applied the artist's prerogative in smoothing out a wrinkle here and there. But my favorite part of this work is the hat, from which the title of the painting is derived. Whenever he wears it now playing golf or at other events with our friends, everyone comments that this is his "portrait hat".
The Next Best Thing
Watercolor
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I grew up on the East Coast and spent my entire adult life in northern California, the Bay Area. I have always loved the water. I did a lot of sailing on the San Francisco Bay, and my ideal vacation is sitting on a beach, reading and listening to the endless thunder of the waves. So I am not sure just how we ended up landlocked in Arizona upon retirement. I miss the water.
This is one of my first endeavors at ocean painting. I had a lot of fun doing this painting, and hope to use the experience to dip my toes in more water paintings. Maybe eventually I will paint one that lets me "hear and smell" the ocean. Stay tuned!
Winter Study
Oil
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This was done as a winter snow study trying to capture the misty distance and the faint contours in the snow covered foreground. I also wanted to illustrate the heaviness of the snow laden branches in the trees.
I found this to be such a quiet and serene painting that reminded me the endless question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
Silver Reflections (Home Page)
Colored Pencil
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This was the piece that changed my mind about endeavoring to do some work in colored pencil. It was very early in my return to doing art, and was done in a class with Barbara Dahlstedt, an incredibly talented and highly awarded colored pencil artist. It was done on a sheet of gray paper, mostly covered in different pencil colors, but bits and pieces show here and there through the speckles of color, enhancing the silver tray in a wonderful way. I never finished this work after the class, but I was thrilled to see this silver tray emerge from that bland background.
I have a composition on my list of things I want to do that will include another silver tray. I am looking forward to doing some more work in this fun medium.
Feeling Blue
Watercolor
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I did a series of small watercolor paintings for greeting cards and framed the paintings for display with the cards at a show. These were quick studies, meant to suggest the flowers rather than portray high levels of detail.