Featured Artist Susan Zwirn | Artsy Shark

For artist Susan Zwirn, painting is about discovery, revision, and staying open to what the work reveals. See more of her work by visiting her website.

Unlike many artists, I am not from a family of artists. I had the good fortune, however, to have my passion for art ignited and nurtured by my immigrant relatives from Eastern Europe. Both my Grandfather Morris and my Uncle Moshe introduced me to music, dance, theater, and the visual arts early in my childhood. I was hooked.

Despite my love of the arts, I was encouraged to pursue a more practical path of becoming a history teacher. Fortunately, in a moment of reinvention in my mid-twenties, my love of art led me to apply to art school. That acceptance changed the trajectory of my life.

I became a professor of Art Education at Hofstra University in New York and joyfully built a career that integrated my creative and academic passions. By writing and developing courses in painting, art history, and pedagogy, I discovered that my teaching not only inspired my students, but also enhanced my art making and enriched my studio practice. The university became an extraordinary patron, allowing me to forge an independent creative path, unconstrained by market pressures.

In addition to personal mentors including Dean Richardson, Paul Wood, and Connie Fox, my artistic influences span centuries. I’m fascinated by prehistoric art as well as early 20th century Fauvism, while Cézanne’s structural rigor, Turner’s luminous space, Matisse’s and Diebenkorn’s energized color, Morisot’s modernist brushwork and Basquiat’s bold imagery have each captivated me in important ways.

My ideas usually begin while sketching outdoors. Then, facing a blank canvas in my studio, I consider colors predicated on temperature and mood, as well as the vitality inherent in the place or person I am depicting.

I apply layers of paint, allowing the colors to flow so I can capitalize on accidents and surprises for my underpainting. This part is the most immediate and fun. Although a camera can capture images and colors more realistically, I prefer a more subjective stance in my art.

The physicality of my materials plays an important role for me. I like the feeling of the canvas on heavy-duty stretcher bars, pushing back against my brush or palette knife as I stand before it. My paintings do not have a limited life span. I often return to them again over years modifying color, adding and removing layers as they reveal another path forward.

Before and after my retirement from teaching, I have exhibited my paintings in galleries, museums and collections in the U.S. and abroad, and received artistic awards. These are fortunate outcomes for someone who remains a relentless critic of her own work. Painting is rarely easy or relaxing, yet I persist, driven by curiosity, commitment and the sensuous qualities of paint.

Susan Zwirn invites you to follow on Instagram and Marin Open Studios.

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