ARTIST BIO
"Next Year, a Tank Suit"
9" x 15"
Oil on Canvas
Born with a crayon in my hand and an aptitude for creating chaos I, Susan Shugrue Melzmuf began drawing shortly before learning to talk. The bountiful pale skin of my red haired siblings became the perfect initial canvas in my life full of color and design. The middle child of five, and the sole brunette in a family of redheads (and one dark but decidedly chestnut brother), I found a crayon became my surest way of communicating, and so I continued and progressed from drawing odd little doodles on my sister’s and brother’s arms and faces and later to more easily identifiable objects until one day, while coloring ferociously before lunch, I told my grandmother I would never, ever eat crab from a can and she yanked that crayon away from me.
For a while.
Grade school proved I had some actual artistic talent, from the joy of finger painting to crayons and magic markers I thrived in art class. My parents began to realize that the drawings and paintings I brought home with sparkling stars and stamps might mean I had something more to offer.
And they did.
I've been painting ever since.....
I found my creative love in oil paints when I studied with the late Terry Oakes Bourret, my amazing teacher for many years. Terry encouraged me in every way to show my work and continue to paint and draw.. Although she taught me to paint outdoors, en Plein Air, I still prefer a nice photo or three, a well lit studio, brand new paints and a good medium mix for my oils.
I mostly love to paint sea and beach scenes that evoke memories of fun and family. Since I mainly paint from photographs, and enjoy painting scenes I find particularly beautiful, I am able to recreate a special memory for you and your family. It will be fun, colorful and a lifetime memory, hand-painted by a passionate local artist.
I was born in Waterbury CT. and now live in Middlefield, CT, with my husband Jon and sweet dog Tom Dooley.
I enjoy small things, the flash of silver, the cool of linen, the cerulean of the sky, my daughter's laughter, Block Island in September, the smell of the ocean, lake glass at dawn, and a fat new tube of paint!
Having had the good fortune to spend most of my life in and around water, it is no wonder I am drawn to paint it.
My greatest happiness comes from painting my beloved Block Island. It remains a jewel for me, a memory, with something quite lovely about the quiet little houses and secret gardens that are still around, if you look really hard.
I studied Fine Arts at Eastern CT State University and Central CT State University.
My paintings hang all over the United States even as far away as Alaska!
You can find my work in these galleries:
The Finer Line gallery, Mystic CT.
Watercolors Gallery, Block Island RI
and now….my second solo show is currently on exhibit at Burnham Library in Bridgewater, Ct. through May of 2024!