Party

We Can Work It Out

It is that time of year again when the student and teacher in me wrestles with time. Could it be that summer is really almost over? Am I ready for the next season, did I make the best use of my time, did I do the required reading?

Refuse

Reduction

Remnants

Cautionary Tales depicts the epic battle between flowers and the atomic bomb that is plastic waste. Who will win? Who cares?

Cautionary Tales

7 Days 1

I am trying really hard to make my art more powerful and its message more clear. Currently I am challenging myself to incorporate the trash I generate each day into a series of seven paintings. I thought I was good about refusing, reducing, reusing, and recycling, but I have a lot of materials after seven days.

7 Days I

7 Days 2

7 Days II

7 Days 3

7 Days III

7 Days 4

7 Days IV

7 Days 5

7 Days V

7 Days 6

7 Days VI

7 Days 7

7 Days VII

Zero Waste makes the owner a helper in my carbon neutral goal as I’ve embedded my trash and bits that are hard to recycle. It’s fun to play I Spy.

Zero Waste

Climate Change

Daily Races

Going Nowhere

Environmental Racism I-III

Flux

Global Warning offers a dystopian view of the landscape, beautiful but off before the tipping point.

Global Warming

Postcards

This series is more revelry than my usual dystopian tales. It’s a post card from my travels and a love letter to the places I have been. Most of my life was spent on the coast of New England. Currently, I live in the low country of South Carolina on a barrier island. Recently, I spent six weeks in a small village in county Kerry. I traveled the Wild Atlantic Way. It was new and different yet surprisingly familiar.  Ireland’s rugged rocky shores and intensely green pastures captivated me. I walked the path of my ancestors and left a piece of my heart there.

Dissection 4

Dissection IV

Dissection 3

Dissection III

12/12 Oil and cold wax on wood panel
$500

Satisfaction

Eden illuminates the glory of nature. These paintings are celebrations of all things pretty.

Eden

Beacon

Chiaroscuro

Magic

This painting was created in front of an audience at a Family Night event. The students had been studying art words like pattern and texture. They were invited to reach into my repurposed Crown Royal velvet pouch and retrieve a plastic coin inscribed with color, shape, line and the other elements and principles. The color coin allowed them to dictate the color of paint I had to use. Every so often a child pulled out the coin labeled MAGIC. As easily as they could rattle off the sophisticated concepts of art, they could believe I performed magic. They were graciously impressed when a spray bottle splashed metallic paint or a giant scrub brush transformed into a painting tool. 

Mouse

Zooming In is a way of seeing the microcosms of nature from the fauna point of view. I invite you to imagine with child-like wonder.

Zooming In

The Field

Irish Goodbye

Each piece is a place in Ireland that spoke to me on a deeply personal level. My artist’s residency was in Listowel. Then I traveled to Kilgarvan, home to my ancestors. Featured is Dingle where I stayed when I visited The Great Blasket Centre. Check out my writings about Ireland to see the whole set and the significance of the title.

Song For Ireland

Origin Story

Speaking With the Angels

Bedrock pays homage to the actual places, people, and ideas that give me a foundation.

Bedrock

Susan Irish is an abstract painter and environmental advocate.

is an abstract painter and environmental advocate.

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Tutorial

Drag to MOVE AROUND the canvas.

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