Artist Bio
Susan S. Birdwell
Mountainbird Studio/P.O.Box 496/Townsend,TN 37882/865-448-0241
web site: www.SUSANSBIRDWELL.com email: mtnbirdstudio@aol.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Residing in the shadow of the National Park, Susan is a professional artist who is realizing her dream of living and working in the Great Smoky Mountains whose quiet beauty is her inspiration. The name Mountainbird Studio honors the flying palette of color and song she enjoys daily...a gift from some thirty varieties of birds who allow her to share their sanctuary.
While growing up in Memphis she expressed an early interest in art, winning numerous Gold Keys in the National Scholastic Art Awards competition. After studying privately with Beverly Bowden Templeton for two years she was accepted to study with noted Memphis portrait painter Billy Price Carroll with whom she spent three years learning composition, color, and technique. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Art History from the University of Memphis she began exhibiting and selling her work.
Upon moving to Nashville she continued her studies with clay sculptor Lena Lucas and rediscovered her love of "playing in the dirt", creating emotionally expressive figures which were featured in an exhibition at the Centennial Art Center and was selected for membership in the Nashville Artists Guild.
Susan has travelled throughout Europe studying the masters in museums and has always been particularly influenced by the Impressionists. Spending quiet time at Monet's house and gardens at Giverny on a cool, drizzly May morning was an unforgettable experience for her: that gray-pink quality of light mirrored the misty atmosphere he captured so masterfully on his canvas.
Due to the strong influence of the Impressionists, Susan describes her painting style as a kind of soft impressionistic realism. With intuition and knowledge of color, form, and brushwork she employs lost and found edges sculpting with paint and capturing light as it reflects the soul of her subject..... in the tilt of the head, the sparkle of an eye, the expression of a hand. Spending time with her subjects enables her to capture the energy and spirit of the individual on canvas.
Her work is displayed in private collections throughout the country and can be seen locally at Mountain Sage Gallery and Mountain Creations Gallery in Townsend and Smoky Mountain Angler in Gatlinburg, TN. A member of the Portrait Society of America, the Cecelia Beaux Forum and Fine Arts Blount, she is listed in Who's Who of American Women and in Who's Who in America.
She continues to work in the various media of oil. watercolor, prismacolor, pen and ink, and clay exploring diverse subject matter and her sense of humor occasionally leaps unbidden into her work. She can usually be found practising the fine art of fly fishing in the trout streams of the National Park when she is not drawing and painting in her studio.
To inquire about information on portrait fees and procedures, to schedule an appointment at her studio, or just to make comments or suggestions email her at mtnbirdstudio@aol.com.
