Through May 8, 2011

An exhibition featuring Susan Petty’s arboreal drawings and paintings.

“I paint where I live, both literally and figuratively. Our home is on a lemon ranch in Saticoy, California, where I visited as a child and young adult.

“The California landscape, its details, and the particulars of my garden are my greatest inspirations. The onrush of urbanization is also an inevitable part of my view. I paint in the present tense, and though I do not focus on the urban scene, bits of it do creep in. Road trips are a favorite form of travel, and I am especially drawn to the areas of our country where the workings of the earth are laid bare, where the vistas are long, and where one can see and feel the interactions of earth and sky.

“For many years watercolor was my primary medium. More recently I have returned to oils and to my first love, drawing. I work in a very straightforward and traditional style, letting the image take center stage. Structurally, composition is of greatest importance to me, with expressive line and beautiful paint indivisible seconds. Content, regardless of its emotional pull or intellectual fascination, is of little value pictorially if it cannot be organized in a meaningful way.”
– Susan Petty