During a time when Susan and her husband lived on a small, remote island on the Chesapeake Bay, often the most numerous neighbors were the species of birds that populated the waters and fields all around — Ospreys, Bald Eagles, Tundra Swans, Herons, Canada Geese, and others. For Susan, watching and admiring those birds in their natural environment would evolve from a fascination into a source of inspiration.

 

After calling the Eastern Shore of Maryland home for 20 years, Susan and her husband migrated south in 2012 to Amelia Island, Florida. This was the time to dust off the dreams she’d veered away from years before. Trained originally in fine art, she had opted instead for the certainties and steady paychecks of a career in graphic design.

 

Northeast Florida has proven to be the ideal locale for taking her talents and training off the shelf. The birds and other visual treasures found along the beaches, docks and marshes around Amelia Island are a trove of visual inspiration. Watercolors are her medium of choice, though of late she has spread her wings to include paintings rendered in oils. 

 

From the aerodynamic elegance of a Pelican, to the lights and shadows illuminating a flock of shorebirds. or a lone Egret, it truly is a celebration of life at the water’s edge.