Travel lust interrupted a career in business when Susan truck-camped 13,000 miles across the continent of Africa.  This life-changing event eventually led to her next career as wilderness and international trekking guide, eventually specializing in remote outposts of Asia.

On a whim 20 years later, she took a class in watercolor painting while recuperating from a broken back (suffered when thrown from a galloping camel in Chinese Turkestan.)  Although she had never previously studied art, a passion and proficiency in painting rapidly developed.  She never had any doubt that watercolor was her medium.  Four years later, she became a Signature Member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society and made painting her next career.  Working exclusively in watercolor, her art work conveys the essence of being there.  Since moving to Colorado, where she is closer to the deserts and mountains that inspire her, she has become an avid Plein Air painter.

In her own words: Above all, I love painting in wild places.  Being outside, hiking and living in tents is my natural environment.  I sit on the ground, paper in my lap and intensely experience nature, weather, solitude and peace as I paint.  Such sessions record not only the scene, but also how I felt at the moment.  On 9/11, the year I began painting, I sat on a ridge on a clear day painting Denali Peak in Alaska, innocent of world events.

I also relish painting in my studio from an extensive outdoor and travel photo collection, created during my 25-year career as Wilderness Guide and International Trek Leader.  I most often paint cultural scenes and portraits of exotic people I met along the way.
These days she is most often found painting plein air landscapes of the Colorado Plateau.

The Artist in Chinese Turkestan