Featured Artist: Susan Antonick
Susan Antonick is an emerging artist from Batavia, IL Inspired by natural beauty and industrial grit Susan explores the coincidence of reality and fantasy and the physical and mental. Whether contemplating the untold stories of an aging bit of Americana, the sights and sounds of a busy shipyard, or a whimsical country garden, she freely transitions between the use of pure watercolor to mixed media. While representational, the somewhat abstract nature of her painting style invites the viewer to think beyond mere objects that first meet the eye.
Susan has a BA degree in studio art from Principia College in Elsah, IL. While raising her family, she has continued her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, IL.
Featured Artist: Stephen Coates
I have a strong conviction that calling forth the best result from a landscape painter requires much time spent out of doors in front of the subject. Painting in the winter or in the rain and wind requires an enclosure, and I can be seen hauling my cart in all sorts of conditions — winter on skis and summer on wheels. It has a gas heater.
Although I am a proponent of plein-air painting, I am not a purist. I also paint from memory, from photographs (sparingly), and from imagination. I find that this mixture of approaches yields overall benefits. I bring general knowledge gained from field observations to studio paintings, and painting from imagination frees me to express myself more subjectively. Photographs are enormously useful for adding detail when portraying fleeting light, such as one encounters at sunset.
