Susan Stephenson Paints Barefoot In The Borough

As we head into the heat of summer, artist Susan Stephenson, is enthusiastic about the warm air and clear skies as she rushes to finish the paintings for her show. But then she was born in Louisiana, and to her, temperatures in the high 80's are balmy.

I'm not off to a nice air-conditioned studio to meet up with her, but hanging out on the street corners of the borough where she stands barefoot, working on her oil-based paintings, which are often laying on the ground.

From her appearance and demeanor you might guess, as you approach, that this seasoned and talented artist was some kid fresh from school. Instead, she is about to become the Chair of the Painting Department of the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.

Looking anything but the 42 years that she is, one could argue that the elusive fountain of youth, sought by so many, comes in the form of passion. When Stephenson talks about her art, passion comes out in the words she speaks, the tone of her voice and the pictures she paints with those words.

"It's pure," said Stephenson, talking about the process of creating art.

Ask her about the moments, the paintings, that make it all worthwhile and she says those moments are "the ones that kind of fell off the brush, that people are drawn to ... People recognize that moment when everything comes together and that makes you feel good."

For Stephenson there is a thrill to working out in the fresh air.

"When I work on site I feel like you really tap into something bigger,” Stephenson said. “I feel like it is really meditative. [A sense of the] transcendental comes from working on site and I live for that."

The shift to working outdoors began after Stephenson moved to Rhode Island in the 1990s. It was a life-altering and art-altering experience for her. She went from being a nocturnal studio painter to working out on beaches.  

"I began to wake up early in order to catch the best light and avoid intrusive tourists, and the pursuit of space became a deeper part of my work than ever before."

Without planning it, her style and body of work began to change. The most notable effect of all is the curvilinear perspective, which crept into her work and has become a distinctive feature of it.

"I simply wanted to convey more of the overall space than I had room on the panel, so I squeezed it into the rectangle,” Stephenson said. "It was a milestone event, working on a panoramic format. Now, that type of wraparound space creeps into my work regardless of the subject or place.”

These days Stephenson can often be found in the borough. If you have walked around the borough recently you have probably seen her, dark hair pulled back, bare feet, wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts, hanging out on a street corner with her box of paints and her canvas either propped in front of her, or flat on the ground.

"People are curious and people are tuned into the arts in this community,” Stephenson said of the borough.  “This is really an artistically minded community.  There is a real ... wise kind of appreciation of the things that I want to paint in the first place."

Her love of art began as a child in Louisiana when her mother used painting as a way of keeping her occupied. It led to a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Louisiana Tech in 1990.  A Masters Of Fine Arts from Boston University for her MFA brought her to New England and here she has stayed.

To see her work today, visit the in Stonington Borough or
find her on Facebook at: Susan Stephenson