Susan Ashbrook, artist and art educator

Susan began her life as an artist in Grade One, when her artwork received gold stars and was exhibited on the classroom bulletin board.

After high school Susan studied oil painting at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick and graduated as a commercial artist from Algonquin College in Ottawa. She went on to work in the fields of advertising, publishing, trade exhibits and designing and building parade floats.

In the early 1990’s Susan travelled a lot and needed a faster drying medium, so she switched from oils to acrylics. At first she hated the way the acrylics handled and the intensity of the colours, but eventually she found that by starting with a grisaille underpainting and applying colour in thin glazes she gained complete control of colour mixing and intensity. She worked for many years in an ultra-realism style and particularly enjoyed painting nautical and garden themes.

Susan exhibited her work, winning prizes and awards, the most
notable of which were placing as a finalist in The Artist’s Magazine’s annual international competition, and receiving an honourable mention in the International Artist magazine competition. Susan’s
work was featured in the book “How Did You Paint That: 100 Ways
to Paint Flowers and Gardens”, and International Artist magazine published her article on marketing one’s self as an artist.

With the evolution of new acrylic paints and mediums Susan found
her interests changing. She became fascinated with textures, mixed media and other painting techniques that allowed for unlimited creative potential. Currently she is producing abstract and semi-abstract works inspired by natural elements and, of all things, the construction industry!

Susan enjoys sharing her knowledge with others and has taught oil painting, a variety of acrylic painting technique and business of art classes and workshops through the City of Ottawa, the Visual Arts Centre Orleans, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, New York. She also offers workshops at her studio in Cumberland Village (Ottawa) and
has some upcoming classes and workshops at the Crichton Cultural Community Centre in Ottawa. As a registered instructor with the Michael Wilcox School of Colour, Susan is offering an extensive three- day colour-mixing workshop at Bridgewater Retreat in Tweed, Ontario
in July 2010.

For more information about classes, workshops and her exhibition venues please visit Susan’s website at www.SusanAshbrook.com.