Show Preview | Susiehyer

Lone Tree, CO
Lone Tree Arts Center, June 16-July 23

Susiehyer, The Whimsy of Weather, oil, 23 x 26.

This story was featured in the July 2015 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2015 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

Painting the landscape in brilliant sunshine, or even under the uniform light of overcast skies, and painting by the pale luminosity of the moon and stars are experiences as different as, well, night and day. Susiehyer loves them both. The award-winning Evergreen, CO-based artist (she goes by a single name that combines her first and last names) takes any opportunity she finds to set up her portable easel or carry a sketchbook into the natural world, regardless of the time of day or night. Both sides of the dark-light divide are represented in Night & Day, a solo show of her work at the Lone Tree Arts Center in Lone Tree, CO. The show opens on Tuesday, June 16, with an artist’s reception on Thursday, June 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. It remains on display through July 23.

“I was first introduced to Susiehyer’s work through her plein-air nocturne series and was drawn in by the way she captured the subtle lighting, stillness, and mystery of the night,” remarks Lone Tree Arts Center operations director Jeannene Bragg. “While we have exhibited other plein-air work, her night works offered something quite different for our viewers. We chose to include a wide selection of her plein-air and studio landscapes in this show to highlight the great diversity and quality of her art.”

The show features almost three dozen nocturnes and about 20 daytime paintings, all in oils on a variety of surfaces including canvas and linen panels, birch boards, and Masonite. Both bodies of work reveal the compositional strength and adventurous approach—frequently exploring new combinations of surfaces and mediums—for which Hyer is widely collected and known. They also reflect the artist’s lifelong passion for the outdoors. Standing in nature in the bright sunshine or anticipating an approaching storm, her visceral excitement expresses itself through her brushes and paint. Night painting presents a different kind of creative appeal. “One of the challenges I love is to see what kind of color I can bring into a nocturne and still have it read as nocturnal,” she says. Another is simply the pleasure of being outside at night. “Very few people have the sensory experience of darkness in the landscape,” she reflects. “I want them to taste the night.” —Gussie Fauntleroy

contact information
720.509.1004
www.lonetreeartscenter.org