Today we’d like to introduce you to Sue Graef.
Hi Sue, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Since I was a teenager, colorful painting has been my passion. Luckily, my artist mother supported and encouraged me to work hard at it. She sent me to weekend classes at Philadelphia College of Art when I was in high school. During this time, I carried around a sketch pad everywhere I went, sketching everything from trees and animals to urban landscapes to objects like my mother’s reading glasses. Soon I went to Tyler School of Art, worked as an artist’s model for a bit and then returned to Clemson University to complete my undergraduate degree.
My first notable success was an award from the curator of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Summit Art Center in New Jersey. This was followed by some challenging years and disappointments. My work continued but it was not shown for some time.
Something changed for me and I began working at my painting much more intensively. I started exhibiting my work at outdoor art fairs and neighborhood galleries. I concentrated on my online internet presence and have been selling my work consistently since then.
More recently I exhibited at SPECTRUM Miami, the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, Art Center Sarasota, and Laguna Art Gallery.
When COVID hit and places closed up, I began exhibiting with numerous online galleries and platforms.
Currently, my work is on exhibit at District Arts Gallery in Frederick, Maryland.
Future exhibitions include the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery (NYC), SCOPE Miami, and Artifact Gallery Solo Exhibit (NYC).
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This has not been a smooth road in the least and to this day the challenges continue with the balance of creating artwork, marketing, PR, curating, packing and shipping, online sales, dealing with galleries, ordering supplies, and keeping the rest of my life together. Understand, my work doesn’t really fit into any status quo category. It is brighter and bolder than usual but it is figurative and representational in a sort of Pop Art style. But it’s not really Pop Art because it’s a lot of landscapes with trees and animals. My use of color, composition and perspective is unusual and some folks have a difficult time relating to it.
My job is to communicate about my work and bridge that gap because I want more than anything to present my paintings to the world. They are uplifting and will spread the joy I experience in creating them. This is my current challenge and I have chosen to accept it and keep at it until I reach my goal.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a fine art painter. My works are heavy body acrylic on premium quality stretched canvas. They are vibrant landscape paintings lightheartedly expressing my vision of the world around me in a unique style. These landscapes range from urban to suburban and rural scenes created in brilliant saturated complementary color. Inspired by life itself, my intention is to intrigue and amuse my audience while they smile at colorful images.
Best known for my use of brilliant color and somewhat unusual take on the environment around me, people often say things like, “I just love your colors” or “Your work really makes me smile” or “I can recognize your work a mile away. It’s so unique.” or “You capture the scenes beautifully and in an uplifting way” or “It makes me feel like I’m right there” and it goes on and on.
I’m most proud of my accomplishments as an artist, the quality of my work, and my ability to communicate via my paintings.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Yes, there is a large body of my work for sale at both Saatchi Art https://www.saatchiart.com/suegraef and Singulart https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/sue-graef-12789. Selected pieces of more current works are available at Zatista https://www.zatista.com/artist/sue-graef.
Contact Info:
- Email: sgraef@tampabay.rr.com
- Website: https://suegraeffineart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suegraefineart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SueGraefPaintings
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GraefArt
Maggy Graham
December 28, 2021 at 5:57 pm
I’ve been following Sue Graef for years now. The material world through her eyes is fun and alive, even the mailboxes and overpasses and automobiles. It is the commonplace that she is presenting in an uncommon way. The colors and patterns and angles are often presented as pure whimsy. Her love and respect for the designed world—the practical world—is always there, whether it the micro world of kitchen utensils or musical instruments or macro world of helicopters, bridges and cityscapes. And then there are her alligators, traipsing through a golf course or crossing the highway in a crosswalk, a nod to those moments in life where you just have to stand back and watch and wonder. Sue’s art is a perfect example of how an artist can show us a new way of looking.
Gina
December 28, 2021 at 10:49 pm
Thank you for a great article on Sue Graef and her wonderfully alive and uplifting work! She is a real dynamo!!