At home in cloud country
Susan Poitevin, Cloud Power, oil, 24 x 30.
This story was featured in the February 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art February 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
SUSAN POITEVIN is a cloud enthusiast to the core. Peruse the landscape artist’s oeuvre and you’ll quickly see that clouds dominate many of her oil paintings. From thick, billowing puffs to thin, illuminated wisps, their ethereal formations stretch across Poitevin’s expansive skies. So deep is the artist’s devotion to clouds that she has even joined the Cloud Appreciation Society, a group dedicated to sharing “the wonder and beauty of clouds” with others. “I have a badge and a mission,” she chuckles.
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- Susan Poitevin, Homecoming, oil, 12 x 12.
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- Susan Poitevin, Silver Lining, oil, 12 x 9.
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- Susan Poitevin, Cobalt Sky Curtain, oil, 8 x 8.
Poitevin’s love for painting clouds in oil developed, quite literally, by accident. About 11 years ago, the Kansas artist slipped on some ice and broke her right wrist. At that point she had been a watercolor painter for nearly 30 years. Poitevin, who paints with her right hand, was devastated. Watercolors were too capricious to be forgiving of the wrist limitations she would face going forward. But then her thoughts wandered to oils, a tactile medium that could more easily be manipulated. After her cast came off, Poitevin took workshops with Kim Casebeer and Phil Starke, “both great landscape oil painters,” she says.
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- Susan Poitevin, Farewell to Autumn, oil, 24 x 36.
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- Susan Poitevin, Morning Glory, oil, 20 x 16.
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- Susan Poitevin, Peach Clouds Over the Prairie, oil, 16 x 20.
Today Poitevin nearly always works in oils, and clouds have become her favorite motif thanks to their soft, malleable shapes and edges. “I’ve never been attached to hard lines and too much detail,” says the artist of her style. And around her home in Kansas, clouds are never in short supply, she adds: “I feel like I have this panorama of painting material floating over my head all the time.” —Kim Agricola
This story was featured in the February 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art February 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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