Susan Weeks

I paint to capture the beauty and the wildness of inner and outer worlds. Some subjects come from observations of nature. Others come from urban life, travel, or subconscious imagery. I paint in series - market scenes, cactuses, leaves underfoot, fruit in trees, snowy landscapes, and reflections in glass and silver. My biggest series is one I began during the pandemic, Demitasse, Point of Departure. The paintings are whimsical, coming from the child within, playing with color and having fun. My process is an unusual one. I take my just finished daily half cup of rich French hot chocolate, turn it upside down on the saucer, swirl it around three times, let it settle, and turn it over. I look at the images I see, draw them, and write a poem about them. Then I paint them, using complementary colors so that the images stand out. I use the Fibonacci spiral as a compositional tool. My newest series is one where I use glass pieces to create unique patterns on watercolor paper. I began by collecting sea glass on the Aegean Sea, placing it on the paper, squeezing a loaded mop brush over it, letting it dry, and removing the glass. I used archival pens to embellish the original image. Lately, I have been painting landscapes by using pieces of sea glass, trail glass, and tumbled glass so that the work has a mosaic-like impressionistic quality.

I have been a teacher, a librarian, and an attorney before pursuing a career as a full-time artist. I credit this professional transition to the deep satisfaction and therapeutic benefits of creating art. The places I have lived, Tennessee, Brazil, Portugal, Guatemala, New Mexico, and Germany, inform my work. In 2026, I will be at an artist’s residency at le Chateau d’Orquevaux in northeastern France. My painting style has evolved over the years, ranging from still lifes to hyper-realism to plein air to the whimsical. In my current series, I use sea, trail, and tumbled glass. I place pieces of glass, that I have gathered on beaches, trails, or have been gifted, on my paper and drop paint onto them with a loaded mop brush. When the paint dries, I remove the glass and adjust, bringing out mosaic-like patterns. Art speaks a universal language, allowing us to behold wonder. In a world where negative feelings and actions abound, my goal as an artist is to lift spirits. My book Demitasse: Point of Departure: Paintings & Poems won the 2023 award for Poetry-New Mexico, from the New Mexico-Arizona Book Co-op. Three of my paintings are in New Mexico’s Art in Public Places collection.

Painting (all materials)