The city of Enumclaw’s Gallery 2010 presents Moving Expressions by local artist Susan Payne. The exhibit opens today, Wednesday, and continues through April 6 at Enumclaw City Hall Council Chambers.
According to city of Enumclaw Cultural Programs Coordinator Gary LaTurner, Payne paints with an emotional flair, a twist of the hand, a swish of the brush and lively accents of color.
“Her work is a reflection of her personal feelings about her life and the things she sees,” he said in a press release. “Susan Payne’s work is exceptionally direct and beautifully rendered. Susan also has a wonderful sense of design.”
An artist reception for Payne is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. March 12 at City Hall.
“Motion and action often move me to paint,” Payne said. “I used to paint urban street scenes when I started out in my studies as an architect, then found my love for drawing the figure in action led me from sketching the studio model, to watercolors of concerts in the park, or dancers. This exhibit shows the type of paintings I’ve been doing in the past few years: horses in action, and playful landscapes.”
Payne was trained as an architect and working as one when a childhood love for horses resurged at age 30. Living on the East Coast at the time, she began painting at hunter-jumper shows or polo matches. She worked days computer-drafting as an architect and took night classes in oil painting, clay figure sculptur, or printmaking. She also kept taking riding lessons.
When Payne returned to her native Northwest, she bought a horse and became immersed in dressage and trail riding. After years of painting watercolors at dressage shows and selling them on location, Payne said her equine watercolors are finally coming to a level where she wants to exhibit them.
An entry to the Equine Art show at Emerald Downs last summer won a blue ribbon in the watercolor category and sold.
“I’ve boarded my horse in Enumclaw for the past four years and moved here because I’m enthralled with the landscape,” Payne said. “I was born and raised in the more convoluted, fir-clad ravines closer to Puget Sound; the wide open plateau here impressed me deeply. My eye was drawn to the lines of straight roads, fields, and abruptly mounded hills that rise here and there, like Mount Peak and smaller islands on the plain. Overall, the clouds constantly weave drama and slant light and shadow.”
The Gallery 2010 show includes recent watercolor and acrylics of the Enumclaw Plateau. Most of the paintings are horses.
“I favor an expressionistic-action style of painting rather than trying to reproduce detail,” Payne said. “The focus is on movement and brushstrokes.”
Gallery 2010 is located at Enumclaw City Hall, 1339 Griffin Ave. Hours for the exhibition space are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. City Hall is closed on national holidays and Tuesdays for municipal court proceedings. For information, call the Enumclaw Cultural Programs office at 360-802-0239.
Gallery 2010 artists have been selected by the arts commission. The year’s schedule includes John Rogers, April; Linda Petchnick, May; Mary Janosik, June; Sallie Zydek, July; Mike Dilbeck, August; Lisa Parsons, September; guest artists, October; Bob Charlo/Kalispel Nation, November; and Payette Still, December.
