Susan Stillman: A Study of Light & Landscape
New York based artist Susan Stillman is known for her vibrant paintings of architecture embedded in the natural landscape. Specifically focusing on homes, Susan uses bold, saturated colors to depict the houses and scenery in which she is painting. With a strong foundation in visual arts, Susan is also a passionate educator, and has taught at Parsons School of Design for many years. Balancing her time as both an artist and teacher, Susan finds joy and inspiration both inside and outside of the studio.
Tell me about your background and where your creative journey began.
I was thankfully born into a loving and supportive family that encouraged me from the day that I painted my first panoramic landscape in colored chalk across a 12 ft blackboard in Miss Viggiano’s 6th grade class. It was the burning of Atlanta from Gone with the Wind.
I attended drawing classes all through high school, studying figure drawing and taking anatomy classes with Stephen Rogers Peck at the Westchester County Center. At 16, I attended RISD’s high school summer session and built a portfolio that got me into the school when I was ready for college. I thrived there. My junior year was spent in Rome, Italy, with RISD’s European Honors Program, a life-changing experience.
In school I vacillated between majoring in Fine Art or Illustration, ultimately deciding that in Illustration I would have a more solid drawing foundation. I began a free-lance career when I returned to NYC upon graduation, and for the next 10-15 years saw my work published in the NY Times, NY Magazine, on numerous book covers, magazines, and posters.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
I find inspiration in my own neighborhood, as well as places we visit in our travels. I live high on a hill and take daily walks at the end of the day when the sun is going down and the highly saturated color changes moment to moment. I document those brief seconds when the specific light turns an ordinary view into something that stops me cold and demands to be painted.
How has your work shifted and evolved over time?
I began as a strong draughtsman, mainly focusing on drawing the figure. After a few years working in NY I decided to tackle color and paint, knowing that was what I was meant to do. I learned to identify and mix color from observation, painting still lifes.
After a pivotal trip to Britain I became immersed in the landscape, falling in love with light and how it transforms any view. I entered grad school at Brooklyn College, studying with Lennart Anderson and Lois Dodd. At the same time, I phased out of Illustration and started a commission business painting Home Portraits, a natural offshoot of my personal work that concentrated on the contrast of geometric architectural forms against fluid and loosely painted foliage.
I also began teaching at Parsons School of Design early on in my career and I’m still there. Teaching is as much a part of my creative life as drawing and painting, and these all feed the others enriching both the work and my life immeasurably. While I took on commissions and taught to make a living, I was always doing my personal work, which is my sole focus these days.
What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?
My studio consists of two small rooms in the attic of my home. I work with my favorite music playing and switch off from several paintings I have going at the same time. I will block in a painting very quickly and then put it aside for weeks. This helps me to retain the freshness of the initial lay-in and distill to the essence of what I want the painting to say. In the second sitting, I’ll know whether the piece is going to work or whether I’ll abandon it.
I’m working on a series of small paintings that enable me to collect those fleeting fragments and address them in the appropriate scale. I call the series PERIPHERAL VISIONS. The larger paintings take on more iconic views of the tableaus I see around me.
Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?
Travel is something that has had a lasting impact on me. Getting away from my everyday life allows me to be a hyper-vigilant observer, a quality essential to my work. Each trip we take introduces me to a new landscape with its own particular qualities of light and form. I bring that excitement home to my studio. Travel also teaches me to observe my own environment with the same openness and awe.
How has Instagram impacted your art career?
Instagram is a wonderful tool for artists to connect and share work in ways that have never been available before. I no longer feel quite as isolated working alone in my studio, and have met many wonderful artists and collectors through it.
What are your future goals and aspirations?
These days I am spending my time in the studio painting what I love. I’m looking for new ways to connect with collectors and curators, private and public, and I hope to see the work in new venues.
Follow Susan on IG: @susan_stillman_art
Website: wwwsusanstillmanfineart.com