Susan Tormoen featuring Pat Geonetta

Artist Statement:

The visual impact of color is the main objective of my work. I use complimentary colors often to facilitate this – orange and blue, red and green, and purple and yellow. Currently I depend exclusively on a pallet knife to apply them. When I mix colors from a tube of paint, I often do so only partly with streaks of pure color left on the knife. In my most recent work that you will see here, I have applied layers of paint, with some the original color to show through. I take advantage of the texture of the first application and the knife glides over this with a new color. The result is a visual impact on the viewer which hopefully achieves a pleasure resembling the artist’s satisfaction in the work.

Artist Bio:

I am a Colorado Springs artist, educated in philosophy at Carleton and Lake Forest Colleges. I work in pastel, oil, and woven tapestry. Subject matter is usually landscape but I enjoy architecture and figure also. Early on as I was finishing my studies as a young mother, I took a few art classes. For years I concentrated on watercolor but after moving to Colorado from Wisconsin I took a workshop with Pueblo artist Fran Dodd, and became enamored with pastel. It was then that spontaneity became characteristic of my style.