Susan Elkins

BiographySusan Elkins is an Impressionist painter of still life, landscapes and portraits that reflect her appreciation for the traditional methods of the past. From the late 1960s through the 1970s she studied at various institutions: the Montreal Fine Arts Museum School, then the open-air Cape Cod School of Art, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she began to develop her sense of the importance of light and atmosphere as the key elements in nature’s colours. At Cape Cod, she studied with the German-born American Impressionist Henry Hensche, and continues to incorporate his lessons into her work. She also studied at Malden Bridge School of Art, New York, with the portrait painter Betty Warren, and graduated from Sir George Williams School of Arts (now Concordia University). Susan moved to Banff in the 1970s, and also spends time in Victoria, BC.

Her subjects are often the landscapes of Western Canada, both mountain peaks and Victoria-based scenes. These may include streets, houses, sun-filled gardens and beach scenes. Elkins prefers to paint outside when possible, returning to the same location under the same light, at the same time of day, until she achieves “a sense of truth”. She also has a studio at home from which she can create still lifes from direct observation: fruits, flowers, shells, objects she finds in gardens or in thrift shops. Her work may appear spontaneous, but is constructed of careful layers of colour: “I was taught to see colour first, then the object.”

Susan’s work has been exhibited in Jasper, Canmore, Banff (Willock & Sax; several group exhibits at the Whyte Museum of the Rockies), Calgary (at the Muttart and the Petro Canada galleries), Vancouver, Victoria (the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria), and in Montreal (group and solo shows). Her paintings are held in corporate collections such as Gulf Canada Ltd, Shell Canada Resources Ltd and NOVA; and at the Whyte Museum of the Rockies, Banff.