Susanne Darius
Centralia, WA
Biography
Susanne Darius is an innovative West Coast artist, based in Centralia, WA. Influenced by artists such as Bonny Roberts, Marion Rose, and Dreama Tolle Perry, Darius has worked for many years to find her internal visual voice, distinct and separate from her mentors. Born in Montreal, Quebec, the Darius family moved across the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast in 1965. Engineer/draftsman father and oil painting mother both encouraged Susanne’s early attempts at drawing. Today Darius’ work is informed by her bachelor’s degree in science helping her to strongly engage with the many properties of paint and media. Darius’ interest in the minute, and at times unquantifiable, has guided her recent foray into abstract, organic forms. Whether an image is portrayed in landscape, still life or as an abstract depends on the creative process and the artist’s eye; the mercurial artistic path sometimes leads to close examination of a bunch of grapes or to non-representational, expressive abstracts.
Artist Statement
My artistic journey has led me from oils to pastels to acrylics to watercolor and back to oils again. In addition, I have painted portraits, still life, landscapes and now I am fascinated by abstract. Currently my personal artistic expression is freed from all adherence to form, allowing me to totally engage with my inner self and grant my creativity permission to flow into my work.
Painting abstracts in oil with cold wax medium is a great revelation to me as it seemed to open me up to possibilities that were not there before. The effects and textures possible are endless. The mystery of this mixture of oil paint with cold wax medium is that it starts out soft and buttery and dries to a smooth satin sheen, leaving the viewer with few clues to how effects were achieved.
