Susan Nuttall

“I want to initiate wonder and questions, intrigue and entertain the senses, while communicating my thoughts, dreams and desires.”

Susan’s need to create heavy textured artwork started when her grandfather went blind. As a young girl she wanted to make art so that he could feel what she was creating. She would work in all kinds of different mediums to allow him to experience her art work through his sense of touch.

Years later when she was doing large murals she wanted to make them with more dimension. Susan could find no product on the market that pleased her, so she set out to perfect her own medium in hopes of creating paintings with the texture she envisioned. Susan has been using this self created medium in her art for over 20 years.

The process of creating Susan’s textured paintings and encaustics begins by working with her photos and her sketch book. Once she finalizes the design for the painting, she starts with a pre-made art board, layering the textured medium using an artist trowel or spatula. This can be many layers to get the desired back ground texture she envisions. Susan then adds the detail layers by hand sculpting each element to the background layers. After she completes the texture part of the artwork, she then makes her own oil glazes and starts the overlay process. Susan uses many layers of oils and varnishes and hot wax encaustics to achieve depth in each of her paintings. After she is happy with the layers process, she then finishes with small details of oil paints to achieve the final painting.

The evolution of this creative process has both helped her to further develop her personal artistic style while satisfying her love of working with heavy textures in her artwork.

Susan has won numerous awards, both regionally and nationally. Her paintings can be found in public and private collections throughout the world.