Brushes, Fine Art & Travel with painter Susan Sohl

Susan Sohl is an artist living in Sonoma County, California who focuses on producing paintings and collages. She has a beautiful and vibrant story, which I’m very excited to feature here on the blog. If there’s an artist you might learn from, Susan will be it. You can view more of her work here.

Travel has played a large part in my development as an artist. As the daughter of a military officer, I moved frequently as a child. Opportunities changed as I relocated from city to city and school to school, and I learned very early to embrace different ways to express myself artistically.

All together I have lived in over 25 different locations, mostly in the Midwest and East Coast, but also in Newfoundland and Mexico. I have worked as a creative director for publishing companies in Chicago and Cincinnati; handled marketing programs for American Airlines in Dallas, and developed a manufacturing company of whimsical fabric art that enjoyed success throughout the 1980’s.

Comments about My Current Work: My particular interest is the human figure, but I also enjoy working with the landscape of Sonoma County. There is nothing more beautiful than the early morning mist that covers vineyards and hills throughout the Russian River area. The colors of fall are vibrant and celebratory because they announce the arrival of harvest in wine country.

My paintings always begin with the hint of an idea, nothing concrete but something that hides at the back of my head.

The goal of my watercolor and mixed-media paintings is very personal: I want my viewers to experience emotion. I paint on an expressive level, and I encourage everyone to respond on an individual level. Joy, melancholy, determination, strength, hopes, and courage—the basic elements of the human condition appear throughout my figurative work and are there for you to explore for yourself.

Educational Background: M.A. in Literature, Northwestern University; B.A. in Literature and Languages, University of Missouri: A.A. in Music and Literature, Stephens College. Art workshops and study in New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., New Mexico, Chicago, San Miguel de Allende, and Tuscany.

Tell us about you art training.

I could not decide when I went to college, and my course studies clearly reflected that indecision.

Morning were devoted to music classes; afternoons to art studios.

Evenings took me back to the music building for hours of practice of scales and finger-strengthening exercises for piano. Music was winning, and so I eventually dropped my art studies and focused instead on nocturnes and sonatas. Prior to giving up the paint and clay, my advisor and piano teacher began to complain about my afternoon art classes. “Darlink”, he told me over the keyboard, “vhy are you vasting time with silly scribbles and drips of paint. There’s only one vay to make strong fingers, and that is practice, practice, and more practice.”

I eventually went on to study literature and did not return to my art studies until years later. Years in publishing threw me into an environmens where I collaborated daily with art professionals, and I won several design awards for projects that I directed. Then I developed a children’s clothing line and a menagerie of fabric creations that sold throughout the United States in such venues as Bloomingdales, Horchow, art galleries, and more. My animals appeared in movies, flew on President Reagan’s plane, and entertained celebrity children.

After my son was born I decided to take a more formal approach to my art education.

The numerous design and painting workshops that I took throughout earlier years gave way to college art classes in Santa Rosa, CA. I entered these classes thinking that I wanted to be a graphic designer but soon switched to painting. Numerous workshops and private classes later I have found my “art” love—painting the human figure.

What are your passions?

My mother introduced me to the “culture vulture” world of art when I was less than 3 years old. We lived in Washington, D.C., and she would take me on weekly outings to museums, concerts, and architectural monuments.

Voila! A passion for museum-hopping was born.

What artist give you inspiration?

My taste is very eclectic and wide-ranging.

I swoon over small figurative sculptures of the ancient Cycladic civilization in Greece. Other African textiles, Egyptian coffins, da Vinci’s anatomical drawings, della Robbia’s ceramic cherubs, graffiti-art by Keith Haring, and young children’s explorations with color.

My paintings always begin with the hint of an idea, nothing concrete but something that hides at the back of my head.

I try to bring it forward by looking at as many materials as possible. These might include provocatively filmed movies, fashion magazines, children’s books, rugs and fabrics from the Middle East. Artists whose work prompts me to actually get started are Matisse, Emil Nolde, Modigliani, Romare Bearden, and Giaocametti.

Nothing but the best for inspiration!

What advice would you give to beginning artist?

I have two things to say to beginning artists:

1) Become a sponge.

See as much great art as possible. Go to museums and art shows, talk to artists, build a library of coffee-table art books and use them. Visit places where artists once lived or are living now. Visit markets and shops that hold ethnic art, wander through architectural ruins, and embrace the richness of everything and everyone around you. Really learn to see, to ask the kinds of questions that go beyond a quick impression.

2) Commit to the work.

Art within any discipline requires more than vision or creative ability. Ask Ernest Hemingway, Yo Yo Ma, Picasso, or Barysnikov. Each would tell you that the process of becoming an artist requires blood, sweat, and tears. All great artists learn this, and those who have succeeded have extraordinary perseverance, courage, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Remember the old saying: 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

A few of Susan’s paintings.

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