Varied Thrush Painting

Artist Susan LeVine was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee where her love of nature was first ignited. After graduating from the University of Colorado, Ms. LeVine had a business designing window and in-store displays for Denver area boutiques. However, a passion for art led her on a different course. This journey began with a year of study in Italy where she was immersed in the beauty of artistic expression and the romance of the Italian culture. She returned to the United States and completed her masters in Art History at the University of Chicago. She was a research assistant at the Art Institute of Chicago, worked for an Auction house and taught art and art appreciation to children, her greatest use of her masters was to awaken her own sensibility as an artist. Susan had the privilege of being a William T.Colville grant recipient and was selected to paint a Steelhead Trout by the Community Environmental Council which adorned State Street in 2007. Ms. LeVine has been know also for painting portraits of homes for realtors and by personal commission both in the Midwest and in Montecito and Santa Barbara. Susan’s paintings of birds and trees are probably the greatest expression of her love of nature. Susan only paints birds and trees that she has seen first hand so that she captures the feeling of seeing a moment in nature. As a fine artist she has exhibited in several galleries in Chicago and has exhibited in many of the SCAPE (Southern California Artists Painting the Environment) shows in Santa Barbara. Always inspired by the beauty of the natural world, her painting reflects a desire to encourage an appreciation of nature. As the artist of Uccellino, Inc.(which means little bird in Italian) for the past twenty years she has designed inspirational products These designs were made from desire to uplift the spirits of others and share a sense of wonder and celebration of life. She licenses her designs and verse to companies that she feels privileged to work with as well.