The Village Gallery, located at 300 Hodges Street in Oriental, is pleased to welcome artist Susan Cheatham as its guest artist for February. A former member of the Circle 10 Art Gallery, Susan has been active in the local art scene for many years. She is often seen around the county with a group of Plein Air painters who gather on Tuesdays to paint at various locales.
Those who know Susan as a painter may not know that her degree is in Landscape Architecture from the School of Design at NCSU in Raleigh, NC. She has been involved in designing over 500 landscape projects in the RTP area and she curated the White Garden at the JC Ralston Arboretum. She taught Environmental Education to 4th-8th graders who came to Camp Don Lee from all over the state to learn about our rivers, estuaries and the special environments in the Pamlico Sound.
In addition to these landscape related activities, Susan notes that “I have been painting since I was seven years old. My passion is painting, and I am always painting. I have a studio, but I mostly paint outside.” Her paintings are about special places she has visited or sailed to, “believing these places to have extraordinary qualities of exceptional natural beauty. When I visit these places I feel a sense of spiritual well-being, soothed and cleansed with clarity and inner peace.”
In addition to her numerous landscapes (see http://www.susancheatham.com for many examples), her artistic resume includes three mural projects, two of which were public art projects and the other installed in a private residence. Her largest project is the Old Theater in Oriental -- painting 20' colorful swirls on the building.
Susan is a member of the NC Pastel Society, Alamance County Outdoor Painters, and is a founding member of the Coastal Pastel Society. She is also was a founding member of Art on the Neuse Fine Arts Event and the Oriental Plein Air Painters. For a decade, she has studied with Susan Sarback, a Plein Air painter with her own studio and art school plus a gallery, Color and Light, in Sacramento, California. Over the years Susan has studied with many other artists including Kevin Beck, Doug Dawson, Lou Wilson, Albert Handel, Lois Giffell, Vickie McKenzie, Dan Nelson and Mike Rooney and many other artists.
In addition to painting, Susan loves to sail. She has made several trips on her sailboat, painting along the way and going as far south as the Bahamas and up into the Chesapeake Bay. As she puts it, “my passion is COLOR and LIGHT, my muse is connected with all elements and qualities of Further. Further I go on a journey of art, chasing Color and Light. And sometimes I chase my muse with my sailboat, the cutter, ‘GRACE’.”
Village Gallery spokesperson Judy Wayland invites the public to a reception for Susan Cheatham at the Gallery on Saturday, February 4th from 2-5pm. The Village Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday from 10-5. The gallery’s display changes frequently with different artists and works presented.
