My Journey as an Artist by Susan Avis Murphy

Watercolor never ceases to amaze and amuse me. I have enjoyed experimenting with it in many different ways and have covered a vast array of subject matter, both realistic and abstract. Each pigment in this watery medium behaves in its own unique way—something that both challenges and stimulates the user. The watercolorist has to learn which colors on his palette will stay put when laid down in a wet wash, and which ones will take off through the water and blend in with a disappearing edge. You have to learn what to expect! As the oil painter says about watercolor, “I don’t like watercolor, because the paint don’t stay where I put it!”

I was first inspired to paint in watercolor when, in second grade, I won first prize in the “Clean Up, Pick Up, Perk Up!” poster contest in Rocky Hill, Connecticut! It has intrigued me ever since. Also when I was in grade school, my mother took some watercolor classes from a lady who lived down the street. She would come home at night with such clever little paintings! My sister and I were in awe, and thought she was a great artist. Interest in art runs in the family. Currently, my niece, Caitlyn Murphy, is studying art for a full year in Florence.

However, I also caught the bug of something else—biology. During all of my high school years I was intensely interested in biology. I kept a little lab in the basement, raised mice and all other kinds of critters, entered science fairs, and in general drove my parents nuts. In the summer after Junior year, I attended a summer research program at the Jackson Research Labs in Bar Harbor, Maine. That started my love of Maine, which is featured prominently in my artwork. Painting was also a hobby of mine at this time, but when I entered college I decided to major in Biology.

It wasn’t until several years after college that I took up painting seriously. I was very impressed by a painting I saw in a sidewalk art show. The artist’s mentor was Barbara Nechis, who has achieved considerable national prominence. I, too, began taking classes with Barbara, and learned not only about techniques, composition, and how to use your imagination in creating a painting, but also about the “John Pike Palette”, Arches watercolor paper, Winsor & Newton paints and real sable brushes. It is worthwhile to use quality tools if you are going to paint in watercolor, because the medium will give you enough trouble as it is!

I had been teaching science at this time, and married a biophysicist, my trusty husband to this day, Marco Colombini. We moved to Maryland in 1979 for him to accept a job offer at the University of Maryland, and I decided to start painting full time. Soon I was swept up in the art world, entering juried shows, selling my work through galleries, taking watercolor workshops by accomplished artists, and painting prolifically.

The piles of bricks and construction rubble in our new neighborhood were inspiring to me because of the abstract shapes, interesting lighting, and repeating motifs that they presented. I did a series of about 50 paintings on this subject, and won several national awards with them, including a major award in the Allied Artists of America annual juried show, a place in the year-long traveling show of the American Watercolor Society’s annual exhibition and a Gold Medal from the Baltimore Watercolor Mid-Atlantic show. Also, one of these was accepted in the Butler Museum of American Art’s annual American Realism show, and is now part of the permanent collection.  I was accepted in the Capricorn Galleries in Bethesda, MD because of these paintings. Capricorn was one of the premier galleries of American Realism and it had been my goal to show my work there some day. I had a one-person show of my construction rubble series, and then went on to a new subject—food.

The food was shown on the plate, hot or cold, sometimes with a bite taken out, and all the typical accoutrements found surrounding a meal. The play of light on the food and dishes was always a large factor in the painting. A certain mood had to be established. To my surprise, they were quite successful, sold quite well, and to this day I still have people asking for “food” paintings! These were also featured in a one-person show at the Capricorn Galleries.

In the meantime, a private gallery in Chicago—the Miriam Perlman Gallery-- was selling my work to some major corporate art collections: General Motors, Beatrice, the Kresge Foundation, Quaker Oats, International Harvester, Detroit Edison, the FDIC, to name a few.

My next major series of paintings featured a pair of antique “gothic” chairs. The chairs were often positioned in relationship to each other to suggest different emotional interactions between people. They are dark and staid, evoking a sense of purity, piety, and their evil, foreboding opposites. One of these paintings “Chair Composition, Opus No. 1,” received the gold medal from the Southern Watercolor Society’s Annual Exhibition.

I have also explored the subject of space and gravity, and another series featured small-format still lifes, in which the surface qualities of material, whether they be transparent, highly reflective, or opaque were emphasized. Another small series was on the French and Italian countryside.

Currently I am concentrating on two different lines of work. One involves subjects from nature seen up close, or "intimate landscapes", such as the pebbles at your feet, or dried brush by the side of a trail. Here the appeal to me is the complexity of nature's repeating shapes and interesting textures, which can be portrayed so beautifully in watercolor. The other line of work is completely different and is very abstract--come see!

Our two sons, Paul and Ben, who were born in the early 80’s, have now graduated from college. How time flies! We all moved to a lovely older home in Sandy Spring, MD, where we are still today. I had always wanted a large studio where I could show my work and teach watercolor to adults, so in 1990 we built Falling Acorns Studio on the property, which is shaded by tall oaks. Falling Acorns has an unusual “timberframed” style of construction, and people often remark as much about the building as they do about the artwork! The studio is open from Wednesday through Sunday, 10-6 pm. I would suggest calling ahead if you are coming some distance (301-774-3418).

I began producing limited edition reproductions of my work some time ago, and now have about 16. They are mostly high-quality offset lithographs on acid-free paper, and are available in the studio framed archivally, or to your specifications. Now we have available several prints made by inkjet technology. These are referred to as "giclée" prints (pronounced jhee-clay) and are usually made in smaller editions.

I have always found it interesting to find out how and why someone starts their career, and I hope this little autobiography gave you some insight into my painting. We have a large mailing list of people who are interested in my art and receive invitations to every show, and if you would like to be on this list, please e-mail me your name and address. I would enjoy meeting you in person, and to all my previous patrons, thanks for your support.

Susan Avis Murphy