HERE'S WHAT SUSIE HAS TO SAY

Who are my favorite contemporary artists?

Speaking of digital artists who paint from "scratch" (no photo source), there are so many talented folks out there. I love the works of Greg Banning, Robert Chang, Yoko Ogre, Phil Straub just to name a few. Their imaginations amaze me.

My favorites from history?

I've always leaned more toward traditonal oils and watercolors. I love Rockwell of course, and more classically Monet and Degas and artists of their style. I'm not too much into the abstract funky stuff.

My favorite or most inspirational Painter artist?

There are SO many great digital artists. The first that I was exposed to was Phyllis Stewart. I got hooked on digital painting because of her paintings (unbeknownst to her!) I've watched DVDs from Jeremy Sutton, Marilyn Sholin, Brad Buttry, Faye Sirkis, Susi Lawson, and Jill Garl. Each has their own very distinct style and I've tried to incorporate something from each into my own style. I also love Nomi Wagner and Helen Yancy and of course Karen Bonaker. I'm looking forward to taking some of her online classes in the future. Painter Talk has so many great artists, I've really enjoyed getting feedback from this web site.

My favorite Painter brushes?

Well, that keeps changing as I discover new ones! :o) Right know I mostly use brushes that I downloaded from Faye Sirkis' DVD for all my hair and fur work. She created some awesome brushes for that. Marilyn Sholin has some wonderful brushes that I use a lot for skin work. I really like the Oils Bristle brush for clothing. Sometimes I use Marilyn's Soft Blender for clothing too. For backgrounds I just fiddle around with John Derry's Cloud Sponge, 10th Street brush, Den's Funky Chunky and Den's Luscious and the Palette Knives. When all else fails I always fall back on good old Grainy Water and Acrylic Captured Bristle.

What do I want the viewer to feel when they look at my art?

This is a tough one! I love to capture 'the' moment with my photography, and then use that in my paintings. So I guess I would like the viewer to be drawn into 'that' moment when they view my work. I love it when the response I get to a painting is a genuine smile, or sometimes even a tear or two.

Have you ever painted with traditional media? If so, what kind of media?

It's been a VERY long time....let's see...I think the last thing I painted with before Painter was crayons and finger paints. Does an EtchaSketch count? :o)

How do you feel that you are paving the way for digital art to have a real impact on the art scene?

Well, I can't say I think my work is going to have an impact on the "art scene" any time soon. :o) Digital painting is still so new (at least in my area) that most folks have never seen it before I show them something I've done. Some people fall in love with it, some just don't care for it. I guess if I was to make an impact, I'd like to educate people to the work that goes into creating these paintings. With the enormous amount of filters available now that almost everyone has Photoshop, a lot of people think we are creating our paintings from a program with just a click or two, and we know THAT'S not true!

Do you use your own photos to create your art?

Almost exclusively. I've painted a few photographs from outside sources, but to this point I take my own photos and paint them. I certainly don't have anything against using an outside photo, it just hasn't come up very often.

Tell us about how you became interested in Painter, and a bit about your life and how Painter fits in it.

I bought my first digital camera about 3 years ago and discovered that I adore taking photos, especially of kids and animals. It unleashed this creative side of me that had just been waiting to get out! I had great fun learning Photoshop and experimenting with manipulating my photos in lots of different ways. About a year ago I saw my first digital painting and I was intrigued immediately. I started playing around with it and just knew this was something I wanted to learn. I watched several instructional DVD's and read tutorials online to develop my style. (Still in development of course!) It's kind of just been trial and error since then, figuring out what photos lend themselves to painting and which don't.

I'm fortunate to be "retired" at 51. We have a huge extended family (no kids of our own) and 2 dogs. We live in the country on some acreage in the Pacific Northwest. My days are filled with lots of gardening and yard work, painting, photography, reading, going to movies, walking and golfing. My husband and I are avid golfers, so that is an area I'm thinking of getting in to....sports paintings. I know my first love will always be children and animals though.

How does Painter fit into my life? It's just so much fun! And to me that's what life should be...fun! What a thrill it is to paint a photo, sit back and look at it and think, "Wow, I love that!" (And then of course there are the times when you paint a photo, sit back and look at it and think, "Wow, I hate that! What was I thinking?" ) :o) You certainly start looking at people and things with a different eye. Checking out shadows and highlights, thinking how they would look painted, what brushes you might use......

Photography and painting have opened my eyes to the beauty we are totally surrounded by. Some unexpected perks for me have been that painting has forced me to grow a thick skin. Not everyone is going to love everything. (Imagine that!) But that's totally okay! And that applies to a lot of areas of life. I'm learning to paint for myself, and trust my own opinions, but also to be open to new ideas and helpful critiques. That is a tough one. :o) I'm not sure exactly where Painter will take me, but I do know that it will be a fun ride wherever we go.

Well, thanks for the opportunity to tell you all a little bit about me! I've really enjoyed getting to know some of you online, even just a little.

:o)

Happy Painting!

Susie O'Connor

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