Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

We still have time to mess this up!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

How stupid are these people?

Let there be snark.

Wait, what?

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

You are here: Home / Artists In Our Midst / Susan Tate – Emerging Artist, A Short Essay

Susan Tate – Emerging Artist, A Short Essay

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Let’s give a warm welcome to Susan Tait!

Emerging Artist, A Short Essay 

by Susan Tait

I remember the day when I picked up a tube of ultramarine blue paint, and thought, “If I buy this, I’ll have to eat soup for a week.” 

I did eat soup for a week. Didn’t regret it. I needed to paint what I saw in my head as I plowed through novels—The Word for World is Forest by LeGuin inspired me to paint a forest a night, firelit under the stars. I was ten, and art was already my Imaginary Friend, but made visible each time. 

As a young adult, I thought art as a profession was for people in art school. My art was just how I dealt with the chafing of daily life. 

A few decades go by. I spend COVID drawing and painting. By 2023, the stack of notebooks and canvases and photos in the garage had gotten deep enough to require floor-to-near-ceiling racks. My friend Matt said to me, “What are you doing to do with it all?” 

“Um, I’ll let my son deal with it after I’m dead?” 

“You’re an asshole,” he said, not unkindly. 

I laughed. I couldn’t deny that if I didn’t think I was any good, no one else would ever have a say in the matter. Did I have the courage for that? Was it enough that sometimes I liked my own work? I didn’t know. 

Two weeks later, the county announced its biennial Call for Entries for artwork to display in the library system.  

I’d spent three years studying Abstract Expressionism in life drawing and painting. Did I dare submit nudes?  

The first staff member I asked looked at me as if I’d suggested hanging porn. Her eyes dropped and she mumbled something about speaking to the exhibition manager.  

I sent four landscapes and a nude, and got a qualified “we’ll let you hang one [nude].” Meanwhile, MAGA is trying to ban books and close libraries, there’s switching going on in the stacks, a guy in a MAGA hat keeps showing up to test tolerance. I decided none of us needed the aggravation. I just sent the landscapes. Just get some things in without making trouble the first time, I told myself. If they like these, and me, I’ll get another chance. Maybe. 

And then I twisted an ankle and discovered a bunion. The day before the installation, my mother died. 

Two other people hung the work while I zoned in and out. 

White wall, from left to right: Prairie Schooner, Boat at Hagg Lake, Dogwood Hill, and TV Nature Park (looking south). Collectively known as “Hymn to Summer.” BJ stealth commenter The Lodger is standing at the far left inspecting the hang. We thank Emily Craft, of the Washington County Library System, for her help. 

Introducing the Works 

Dogwood Hill, Tigard, OR.
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 10”
2015.  

I changed my drive to work to watch this tree, which blooms every spring as if grafted rather than grown. Not even the climate changes to date have changed its schedule. My spirits lift when I look at it. The brushwork is as simple as the composition itself. I dumped the fan-shaped foliage brush and went with fingertip updates in foreground and midground. 

TV Valley Nature Park (looking south), Tualatin Valley, OR. 

Acrylic on canvas. 

16 x 20” 

2015

Parking lots can be great places to paint from when they open to views like this. I was starting to get tired of the “safety” of realistic colors and realistic scenes, so I began painting brighter colors and higher values into the palette; Tuscan Red is a plausible substitute for Burnt Umber, and so on. I’m leaning into the warmth and energy from the south with complementary shades of red to call out the deciduous trees, left the evergreens as they were, and let subtle dark purple set off the golden seal and other yellow-blooming and budding. I’ve overcome fear about how I scale the sky; if it’s going blue-to-cloud white, just do it. It took a few layers and adjustments. I’ve also used the foliage brush to get more erratic color dappling in the midground trees while blurring the color a little. 


Detail, TV Nature Park. 

 Preparatory drawings are helpful. I think trees can have portraits, like people. When they’re not all the same, studying both the species and how that particular tree grew is helpful. The west wind is soft, persistent, and these trees seem to have grown with it—and with the morning sun that so often dissipates to clouds in the afternoon. Some of these drawings I enjoy in their own right, as below: 

Young tree, graphite on paper preparatory drawing. I was surprised at how often professionals draw and draw a subject—it’s a routine habit, not just something they do for commissioned or complex works. Live and learn. 

 Boat at Hagg Lake, Scoggins Valley Park, OR. 

Acrylic on canvas. 

11 x 14” 

2015 

The Lodger and I were on a company picnic when we spotted the boat, striking a perfect salient into the water locally known for smallmouth bass and steelhead. The last of spring growth in sunlight calls the eye, while the prow leads to it. I use my camera for fast composition work.

What surprises me regularly is how differently the camera “sees.” It’s not just the color space—human eyes see more color than cameras can—but even the values shift. It’s particularly difficult to get an “accurate” blue. I stopped caring: problem solved! I used a brighter red to activate all the greens. 

Moving into more visible brushwork, because the tactility of brushstrokes reinforces grasses, wood, and similar textures so well. I overdosed on Van Gogh when I was younger. It felt disorienting to copy his work, as if the brushstrokes felt like thoughts whirling through my head. I started copying happier painters and felt better. 

 Prairie Schooner, Rentenaar Road (Sauvie Island). 

24 x 30” 

2015 

Van Gogh does stick, though. I liked to go on road trips, and Sauvie Island has a wildlife reserve, clothing optional beaches, an active shipping channel, and residential homes and farms. A cloudless sky isn’t interesting, so I look at activating brushstrokes to represent wind I couldn’t feel—note that the tall grasses aren’t bent—and the telephone pole housing the osprey nest that’s so clear to eye and camera just didn’t work on canvas. That’s what I thought I was painting. The real show is the evergreen copse looming behind the nest. A curious and persistent yellow jacket—I’m allergic to their venom—and I danced to the canvas and back for nearly half an hour.  

Detail, Prairie Schooner. 

Not all the energy recorded here was intentional, especially in the foreground. I’d hit the canvas with the brush while watching the wasp. I eventually painted in a crow, didn’t like it, and painted it out again. Paint’s very forgiving. 

Incidental feedback is trickling in. 

“I want to look at the big one again. Like the sky.” 

“There is something wholesome and normal about them, but they also convey a feeling of loneliness to me.” 

I’ve pitched an artist’s demo as the theme for a reception, if we have one, because I’d rather talk while I work to people who are curious. Children ask better questions than adults and I’m hoping for some to see what I see: art’s available for everybody, and if you do it for long enough, with some education, it can serve us well. I’ve been advised to read Your Brain On Art for the science behind that. I’m looking forward to it.  

New work is all life drawing and painting, and I’ve realized that I need to keep going through notebooks for works and creating new works that reflect how I do this now; this entire trip started with the thought: “No one needs one more painting of a brown river in a green field.” And I decided that wasn’t a good way to think. 

Thank you to WaterGirl and John Cole and all of Balloon Juice for being present and engaged and helping us make it through these mindbending times by sharing a little bit of the world beyond the news.  

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  2. 2.

    Kent

    Nice.  All those locations are within an hour of my house.  Nice to see local artists here.  I spent lots of time at Sauvie Island back when I was in college but haven’t been back in many years.  Gotta put that back on my to-do list

    Art is about learning to see.  Something I think is being diminished in a world with endless perfect digital images.

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Very nice. Obviously impressionist influenced. You’ve got talent, Susan!

  4. 4.

    Fair Economist

    Those are some great paintings and I love the explanations of how you made them and what makes them what they are.

  5. 5.

    Scout211

    Your paintings are beautiful.  And thank you for giving us a peek into your creative process.  Amazing.  😊

  7. 7.

    Lynn Dee

    Wow. I really really like your work. There’s something about them — or everything about them (maybe best summed up as “your eye”?) — that makes me want to look and look and keep on looking.

  12. 12.

    BlueGuitarist

    Beautiful.

    also love The Word for World Is Forest and other Ursula K. LeGuin’s books.

  20. 20.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    These paintings are wonderful. Thanks for sharing. ❤️❤️. The first two and the row boat especially for me! You need more showings so more people can see them. And maybe enter into the local County Fair fine arts competition come September?

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @BlueGuitarist: Oh, no, I didn’t mean that at all!

    I just didn’t see anything in SC’s comment that you might be responding to, so I was guessing that maybe you were intending that for the artist. If so, I was going to offer to fix it for you.

  23. 23.

    cwmoss

    @Kent: close to my house, too! I saw a caption for “Hagg Lake” and I’m like, that Hagg Lake? Sure enough!

  24. 24.

    Mike in Oly

    I have been playing with watercolor for a few years, on and off, and currently taking some classes from the local Parks & Rec in an effort to get more technically proficient. I am struggling with letting go my minds image of a photo-realistic finished product and trying to just capture impressions of my intentions. Do you have any advice for getting one’s head into a space that can just let that all go and bring more freedom of expression into the process while still keeping the spirit of intent intact? I love your color palette choices and all the implied movement in your paintings.

  26. 26.

    eclare

    I would love for you to come to my house and paint a portrait of my silver maple.

  27. 27.

    opiejeanne

    @West of the Rockies: Ha! Many years ago I tossed out a large newsprint pad I used in an art class, full of very rough sketches done with a wide brush and sepia, the intent was to get us comfortable filling up a large space with our paintings, and to show motion with slashing lines. The model would change position every 30 seconds or so, so a lot of that pad was a nude painted over a nude over another nude, looking like she had six arms in some poses.

    When the trash collectors came to get the can, I looked out and saw them leafing through that pad, and then taking it into the cab. Our models were rarely attractive, but BOOBIES! I guess, as well as full frontal, which in the 1970s wasn’t as common. Playboy wasn’t even showing that back then.

  28. 28.

    opiejeanne

    I especially love the boat at Hagg Lake and the Prairie Schooner painting. I want to climb into that boat and push it away from the bank, but I am a dummy and don’t understand where the covered wagon is hiding in the Prairie Schooner painting.

  29. 29.

    DEBG

    @BlueGuitarist: Yes, me too. My best-loved author of all time. Susan, I think Le Guin would have been honored beyond words to know that she inspired some of your art.

    Thank you for sharing your story and your beautiful art.

  30. 30.

    stinger

    Your art is fabulous and so are your explanations. Thank you for sharing them.

  32. 32.

    TBone

    I enjoy your prose as much as your painting, thank you for sharing all of this 💜

  33. 33.

    Jay C

    Excellent work, Susan:

    Just a passing observation, but to my eye, your work seems to invoke Winslow Homer as much as Van Gogh. Which is a compliment.*

    *even though Homer is better known for watercolor than otherwise (“oils” in Homer’s time, as acrylics hadn’t been invented).

  34. 34.

    Jude

    Wonderful pieces, Susan. I loved every one. I’m an artist too and truly enjoyed your contemplation. It’s all such a lovely journey.

  35. 35.

    No One You Know

    @WaterGirl: Oh,  my God,  my apologies. I didn’t know there was an attendance expectation–I looked fast, nodded,  returned to family Zoom. (It’s not just Memorial Day. It’s that my mother died a month ago. We were not close… but… it wasn’t expected and it was fast. )

    Begging pardon of you all. I will try to make it up in comments…

  37. 37.

    No One You Know

    @Villago Delenda Est: ☺ Thank you!

    I’ve been astonished at how much easier it was to get off my plateau when I began sketching from news programs. Since I never know when the camera will switch, indecision gives way to impulse. The chicken scratches are getting more interesting.

  39. 39.

    pieceofpeace

    I also enjoyed your paintings and explanations.

    These are truly lovely and evoke extended contemplation, not just about the mechanics but also how it makes the viewer ‘feel.’

    Thank you.

  40. 40.

    No One You Know

    @BlueGuitarist: These will be at Hillsboro public library until June 1st. They retire back to the collection; I have two more in progress and am tracking calls to artists to see if I can qualify for some of the beginner shows. If there is such a thing.

  45. 45.

    No One You Know

    @Mike in Oly: Oh wow…I am looking at watercolor myself  to get a better idea for glazing technique.

    There’s a five-week Smithdonian series (sold out  but may be rerun next season) on “Watercolor for Beginners” but the instructors work was breathtaking, to me. You may be well beyond that point but I also see watercolors in the upcoming catalog:

    smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/

    I’ve taken the Composition class (excellent and demanding homework in visual literacy), the Barnes Collection (not available publicly until long after I left Philly, and also excellent if a little academic).

    Hope this helps,  I can look around some more.

  46. 46.

    No One You Know

    @Mike in Oly: I’m also working on a new essay about how,  in my particular case, I had to unpick a habit.

    If you’d like a copy to read/critique/ line the parrot cage, feel free to get my address from Our Benevolent Overlords. I’d love to bounce some ideas around with you.

  48. 48.

    No One You Know

    @eclare: I’m looking for new sites. Perhaps we could swap email addresses courtesy of BJ?

    If you’re within Portland Greater Metro or Salem area, we could experiment. I’d love to see the tree in question.

  49. 49.

    No One You Know

    @BigJimSlade: Thank you! It’s both humbling and encouraging to feel the support. I keep wondering “who do I think I am” and the answer is, “nvm, just paint.”

  50. 50.

    No One You Know

    @opiejeanne: This reminded me of a painting I did, hated, lost, found in the garage,  and now like.

    I m not sure if/how to attach it in a post. I will say that it was one of two that almost made it into the collection, until I lost my nerve. Seated nude with six legs, unclear number of arms, blue skin. And yet, with all its problems, I can’t stop looking at it. It will confuse the easy-to-offend, I hope.

  51. 51.

    No One You Know

    @opiejeanne: That ship is sailing into the background, cleverly disguised as evergreens. I had initially painted them out because a friend said they looked like sails. Well they do, sort of, but I wanted things to be too real. Painting them back in again was a surprising and useful lesson.

  53. 53.

    No One You Know

    @Jay C: Winslow Homer? Omg. *bows respectfully*

    A personal friend remarked that she felt they had lonely quality. Which is what I get from a lot of his work.

    I don’t feel it in my work, but then, I’m always in my work.

  55. 55.

    Ramalama

    Love your work. The detail on those trees in The Boat at Hogg Lake is terrific. Prairie Schooner is moving too. I loved reading about your process. I’m working on a website for my uncle, also a painter, and added descriptions for his About page that delved more than his standard paragraph. getting some pushback, but the About page is the 2nd most popular page on a website. People like stories even when it comes bound with some art. You’ve got that down, for sure.

  56. 56.

    No One You Know

    @Ramalama: I treasure these observations–I am never sure when I’ve said enough, or too much. Thank you.

    Not being sure of this made the essay a little difficult to write, so I kept it terse–I can’t help but feel that the paintings speak for themselves. It’s been suggested that without the text, people are free to imagine their own story, but they’re also limited by what they know. So speech helps, if it’s the right kind. Thank you again for yours!

  57. 57.

    No One You Know

    @West of the Rockies: The Smithsonian’s Barnes Collection docent commented that Impressionist  landscapes were developed to help make nudes “acceptable” to the French Salon. Manet went to town with that idea.

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