LandScape Meditations-Red Sky With Cypress-Daily Painting

I have recently gotten the "Landscape Bug" again, and find myself lovingly painting these sort of dreamy oils with ethereal light sources. They allow me to travel to a place in my head where everything is tranquil and beautiful, nothing ruffles or offends the consciousness.

An artist pal of mine came in and saw them as I worked and said "Suze, ya oughta call these Meditations because they are very serene". I took her advice. :) I am doing these Daily Paintings with great relish; it allows me to exorcise my painting demons. ( the one that keeps me cooped up in the house with a brush in hand, hair wild and woolly, coffee cup too close to the turp)
The meditation for this work is : "you must trust your inner knowing; if you have a clear mind you won't have to search for direction, direction will come to you" ( -Phil Jackson)

I VERY purposefully paint in a variety of schools, sometimes an Impressionistic mode, and other times, much more contemporary, slightly edgy themes which morph between abstraction and reality. See the photos I have posted for an idea of what I'm up to.

I refuse to limit myself to only one style, which admittedly can be confusing for some folks. I like to use Picasso as an example; if you take the time to look at his early works, you'd be astounded to see the portraits he did; if you didn't know it was Picasso, in a bazillion years you'd never guess it. He moved through various styles and schools in his career before he landed in one that made him a household word.

I have no illusions as to my place in the art world food chain, but I have eked out a bit of acclaim and hope to do even better. Winning two International Awards and having my work selected for decor on the TV show "Extreme MakeOver:Home Edition '08 ain't exactly chopped livah, ya know. :)

I can proudly say I am enthusiastically collected all over the U.S., something of a hit in Europe ( see Bio) and semi-resident artist in several galleries on the East Coast.

I have always enjoyed the palette knife, but have found a whole new mode of expression in it's use recently. See the series "Rainy Days and Mondays" ( soon to be posted here, currently posted at ImageKind.com, search my name) for examples.

These dreamy landscape "meditations"you see on this page all have palette knife in them, along with some brush work as well. I love building up texture, and those are usually universal features of my work: texture and intense color.
These are small paintings, all usually under 11"x14" and are modestly in price. For the most part, I am not offering frames with them, to keep cost down and make shipping less costly.
You can purchase this work through www.FineArtBySusiFranco.com.

I am not a fan of listing work at Ebay for bidding, image theft is rampant there. Just take a quick minute to visit my new site, www.FineArtBySusiFranco.com, where you can see this work and many others, available for your purchase.

It is worth mentioning that I am also a nationally published author, of the book "Angels With Stethoscopes", available at www.Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. If you'd like to purchase the book along with a painting, I'll include it for $17.95. ( the online book retailers charge less because they get hundreds of copies at a time from the publisher, it isn't feasible for me to do that.) The book has received glowing reviews and is a candidate for a national book award. I am fiercely proud of it~

Come back and visit again soon, won't you ?

Warmly: Susi copyright 2008, Susi Franco