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Biography
Suzanne Truman was born In Phoenix, Arizona; raised on farms and ranches in Arizona and California until her Family moved to Kentucky when she was 15. She returned west after attending a year at The University of Kentucky. She worked in Yellowstone National Park and lived in Hawaii for three years before migrating to the Rocky Mountains to finish her art degree in Bozeman. From there Suzanne moved to Missoula, Montana to complete her MFA, in painting. After graduate school she taught backcountry field courses in Alaska and along the Rio Grande and Big Bend National Park for two years. She went on to teach painting and drawing at The University of Montana-Western and Montana State University for the next seven years. Presently, Suzanne lives with her husband and their cat in Bozeman, Montana. The open west, and a sense of place, continue to strongly influence her paintings.
Nature offers a myriad of sensations and awakens a sense of discovery when one is "exploring" their surroundings . Colors and textures inspire a lyrical essence of story. Engaging my senses and becoming absorbed in my surroundings elicits a sense of wonder. Robin's egg blue sky, indigo nights, aqua seas, red rock canyons; vermilion, azure, sienna, and viridian patinas of lichen covered rocks - These visual and emotional experiences inform my paintings. Thus, the exterior landscape fuels my interior landscape (psyche, mind's eye, soul).
While painting, I strive to use the elements of an additive and subtractive process in a harmonious way, to evoke a metaphorical aspect of my natural surroundings. As the surface evolves, I sand, scrape and scratch back into the multi-painted layers. By intuitively responding to emerging images I feel that I am both weaving and unraveling a "story". I seek to reveal this "discovery" through each finished painting. (When complete, I hope to have images that look as if they're found objects. That is why I conceal my brush strokes). For myself, these paintings function as a tiny aspect of the wonder felt in "The Land" that can not be explicitly ( realistically ) represented. In turn, I hope these abstract images stir the "interior landscape" of each viewer to inspire their own sense of discovery.
Artist Statement
My work is process oriented and concerned with series and structure, and interpreting colors, patterns and textures from nature - including objects eroded and worn by nature - onto constructed surfaces in a complex minimal layering of oil paint with wax medium or encaustic paint. My oil/wax paintings are usually on larger canvases and my encaustic paintings are on smaller handmade wooden boxes with deep sides. I arrange these on the wall in series of three to 20, as sets, usually as triptychs or in grids of 9, 16 or 20. Sometimes I place an individual box/painting alone on a large wall to magnify the/objectness of the painting. Recently, I have been working in larger series of different configurations. Both of the "Color & Light" series consist of many small encaustic box paintings conceptually arranged as an installation to convey a sense of rhythm and play of light between the paintings. "Rhythm & Pattern" also plays with syncopation but with more overt colors and patterns in the individual panels. The visual elements in these installations are distilled from nature, while the arrangement and the forms reflect modern-world construction.
While painting, I strive to use the elements of an additive and subtractive process in a harmonious way to evoke a metaphorical aspect of the natural world and the play of light in the wide-open spaces of the American West. As the surface evolves, I sand, scrape and scribe back into the painted strata. By intuitively responding to emerging imagery, my intent is to reveal minimal abstractions suggestive of the cumulative effects of natural events that shape the land, and objects therein, over time. The exterior landscape thus fuels my interior landscape and these paintings serve as essences that can not be explicitly represented. In turn, I hope they stir the "interior landscape" of the viewer and inspire their own sense of visual exploration.
Suzanne Truman was born In Phoenix, Arizona; raised on farms and ranches in Arizona and California until her Family moved to Kentucky when she was 15. She returned west after attending a year at The University of Kentucky. She worked in Yellowstone National Park and lived in Hawaii for three years before migrating to the Rocky Mountains to finish her art degree in Bozeman. From there Suzanne moved to Missoula, Montana to complete her MFA, in painting. After graduate school she taught backcountry field courses in Alaska and along the Rio Grande and Big Bend National Park for two years. She went on to teach painting and drawing at The University of Montana-Western and Montana State University for the next seven years. Presently, Suzanne lives with her husband and their cat in Bozeman, Montana. The open west, and a sense of place, continue to strongly influence her paintings.
Nature offers a myriad of sensations and awakens a sense of discovery when one is "exploring" their surroundings . Colors and textures inspire a lyrical essence of story. Engaging my senses and becoming absorbed in my surroundings elicits a sense of wonder. Robin's egg blue sky, indigo nights, aqua seas, red rock canyons; vermilion, azure, sienna, and viridian patinas of lichen covered rocks - These visual and emotional experiences inform my paintings. Thus, the exterior landscape fuels my interior landscape (psyche, mind's eye, soul).
While painting, I strive to use the elements of an additive and subtractive process in a harmonious way, to evoke a metaphorical aspect of my natural surroundings. As the surface evolves, I sand, scrape and scratch back into the multi-painted layers. By intuitively responding to emerging images I feel that I am both weaving and unraveling a "story". I seek to reveal this "discovery" through each finished painting. (When complete, I hope to have images that look as if they're found objects. That is why I conceal my brush strokes). For myself, these paintings function as a tiny aspect of the wonder felt in "The Land" that can not be explicitly ( realistically ) represented. In turn, I hope these abstract images stir the "interior landscape" of each viewer to inspire their own sense of discovery.
Artist Statement
My work is process oriented and concerned with series and structure, and interpreting colors, patterns and textures from nature - including objects eroded and worn by nature - onto constructed surfaces in a complex minimal layering of oil paint with wax medium or encaustic paint. My oil/wax paintings are usually on larger canvases and my encaustic paintings are on smaller handmade wooden boxes with deep sides. I arrange these on the wall in series of three to 20, as sets, usually as triptychs or in grids of 9, 16 or 20. Sometimes I place an individual box/painting alone on a large wall to magnify the/objectness of the painting. Recently, I have been working in larger series of different configurations. Both of the "Color & Light" series consist of many small encaustic box paintings conceptually arranged as an installation to convey a sense of rhythm and play of light between the paintings. "Rhythm & Pattern" also plays with syncopation but with more overt colors and patterns in the individual panels. The visual elements in these installations are distilled from nature, while the arrangement and the forms reflect modern-world construction.
While painting, I strive to use the elements of an additive and subtractive process in a harmonious way to evoke a metaphorical aspect of the natural world and the play of light in the wide-open spaces of the American West. As the surface evolves, I sand, scrape and scribe back into the painted strata. By intuitively responding to emerging imagery, my intent is to reveal minimal abstractions suggestive of the cumulative effects of natural events that shape the land, and objects therein, over time. The exterior landscape thus fuels my interior landscape and these paintings serve as essences that can not be explicitly represented. In turn, I hope they stir the "interior landscape" of the viewer and inspire their own sense of visual exploration.