84 SIDELINES JULY 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
“Snooze” – Oil on canvas, 36” x 48”
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Rocky Mountains - Art
By Lauren R. Giannini
It’s a big deal, that very frst show of an artist’s
work, and Susan Bell, who lives in Denver,
Colorado, has special memories about that
occasion in 1997. “The exhibit was put on by
an out-of-work geologist who opened up one of
the frst micro-breweries in the country, and he
had beautiful gallery space in it,” she recalled.
“The geologist was John Hickenlooper, the now
governor of Colorado.”
Since that auspicious debut, Susan’s impressionistic western
oil paintings of landscapes, wild life and livestock have hung in
galleries in her home state, New York, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
Her rendition of a foxhound toured the country in 2007 with the
Masters of Foxhounds Association’s 100 Years Traveling Exhibit.
“I’m an eclectic person, I love all sorts of art – I’m sort of an
equal opportunity admirer. I love the impressionists, because I
love to paint plein air (on location),” Susan said. “I totally admire
Rosa Bonheur for her ability to paint animals – she was amazing.
Hermen Anglada-Camarasa (1871-1959), a Spanish painter, was
incredible. I like John Singer Sargent. I love Gustav Klimt. Alfred
Sisely, one of the impressionists – you don’t hear a lot about him,
but he was incredible. I could go on and on.”
Susan grew up riding bareback and western in Colorado, but
stopped riding when she went off to college. When she was 30,
she wanted to learn how to play polo. “So I bought myself a couple
of polo ponies – great fun,” Susan said. “I still have one of my
original ponies. He’s 27, and I’ve had him since he was two. I
rescued a mustang about 3 years ago – he loves to jump. Just got
another rescue, she’s part paint, part Thoroughbred – fabulous
horse – and I have a little donkey and Lucky, a former polo pony.
I don’t play polo anymore, but I trail ride, jump a little, and hunt
with Arapahoe now
and then, because it
was their then Jt-MFH
Lawrence Phipps III,
who taught me to play
polo.”
Most of all Susan
paints, especially plein
air. “In art school we
had to sit there and paint the naked model day after day after
day – I got sick of it,” she admitted. “I took classes at Colorado
University in Boulder, at Fashion Institute of Technology in New
York City and at the Art Students League of New York.”
Susan cited Ned Jacob for infuencing her equine paintings and
Michael J. Lynch (of Colorado) for developing her artist’s eye.
“The very frst workshop I took with Michael, we went outside in
the dead of winter, in March, and it looked gray and brown to
me,” Susan recalled. “Michael impressed on me how to see all the
colors – purples, yellows, golds and oranges. At that time I didn’t
think I could go out and sit in a snowstorm and paint. Now every
January I go down to the stockyard and paint the animals.”
After location sessions, Susan takes her plein air oil paintings
home and turns them into studio renditions. Her use of color and
light, along with her affnity for her subjects, infuses her paintings
with energy. Considered an animal artist, she paints horses,
livestock, wild life, birds and landscapes. Recently she added a
new dimension to her fne art.
“I like to sculpt horses and hounds – I’m working on little
maquettes, and I would like to do some bronzes,” Susan said.
“I also make little animals from baling wire. Of course, I keep
painting. To date, my work has been in four museums. One of my
goals is to have more paintings in museum collections. Another
goal is to continue giving back by teaching art and riding lessons
to children, and I love my work with a counselor, providing riding
therapy to kids and adults.”
About the writer: Sidelines’ Lauren R. Giannini is an award-winning “wordsmith”
specializing in stories and photos about the equestrian world. Crazy about horses her
entire life, she lives in the horse and hunt country of Virginia. Lauren’s motto is “write,
ride - not necessarily in that order!”
Susan Bell
Paints The
Rockies
Colorado oil painter
Susan Bell works
on a painting of
bison.
“Stock Show Parade”
– 20” x 20” Giclee on
Canvas