Sylvia Sussman

Though born in New York, my childhood was spent in Washington State which influenced my contemplative attachment to the landscape. Later schooling in California and graduate study in London introduced me to very different atmospheres and light. I also developed a love of the English watercolorists of the 18th and 19th Centuries. After receiving a graduate degree in Sociology in the mid sixties, I studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute where I also taught in the Humanities dept. I continue to teach in an academic program while pursuing my endeavors as an artist. I have shown at various venues including Richmond Art Center, Villa Montalvo, Bedford Gallery, Pro Arts, Berkeley Art Center, Addison Windows, The Old Berkeley Courthouse, The Alameda Cnty. Superior Court, Berkeley Civic Center building, Gaia Arts Center.My paintings play and work with the spaces created by the horizon or its absence, by the sky, the weather; the earth and its expanse, its curvature, its fecundity; the water, its movement, its colors; by light manifested in atmosphere; by the landscapes presence, its fullness and its emptiness. I have been working on several series referring to wetlands, mudflats and grasses; to ponds and fields. I work...