Home » Events » Art Exhibits » VNRC Presents “Plant Portraiture in Watercolor”, an Exhibit by Susan Bull Riley, as part of Montpelier Art Walk on Friday, February 2nd Jan 22, 2024 VNRC Presents “Plant Portraiture in Watercolor”, an Exhibit by Susan Bull Riley, as part of Montpelier Art Walk on Friday, February 2nd On Friday, February 2nd, VNRC will host a reception for painter Susan Bull Riley in conjunction with Montpelier Art Walk. Susan’s exhibit, “Plant Portraiture in Watercolor”, is a collection of paintings that faithfully depict some of Vermont’s mos ..read more

Hello, Visitors to my website: A new post about how I sometimes rely on photography for details of bird plumage. Today's post has some examples of how I integrate reference photos into my paintings: Here's an owl I photographed at the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum (which has a section of the museum devoted to live birds of prey that can no longer fend for themselves in the wild)   Here she is again, posed now in an old maple tree in a way that hid her damaged wing. watercolor, 42 x 24: (I found that tree on a Marlboro (VT) backroad after searching for days to find just&n ..read more

I started college when I was 17 years old, a time when the studio painting scene at Dartmouth was heavily oriented towards abstract art. Seeing nothing of myself in the kind of work being made, I majored in music instead which later led to a conservatory degree in flute performance and many years as a freelance musician. Art remained a stubbornly private passion during years of other professional work and a rich family life with our daughters.  When my need to paint became too loud to ignore and became my primary work at age 40, I wondered if I belonged in the world of illustration as ..read more

A question I am often asked is “How long did it take for you to paint that?” (A snarky answer could be, of course, “A lifetime… and the past week”.)    Case in point: the genesis of one current oil painting goes back to a desire I have long had --decades, easily --to find a way to paint sunlight filtering through the water in Vermont's brooks.  Magic.       I'm on it! I biked out to Shady Rill brook a couple times last June, and did a plein air study:          ....which I developed more when I got home... and then painted ..read more

Hello, Friends and Family,  Today, among many other things, I varnished an oil painting of a cardinal with gold leaf all around it.   But... why gold leaf? Because when we bought our house in 2012, I discovered a very, very old box of gold leaf (from the turn of the previous century, judging from the packaging) that had been left in the dusty toolroom of our 1865 schoolhouse. I didn't think it could possibly be real gold, and not knowing what to do with it anyway, I put it away for a decade.  Well, surprise! A jeweler recently confirmed that ..read more

One October afternoon when I was in high school, a friend and I packed up our oil paints and biked off to record a view of the Adirondacks from a vantage point overlooking the Champlain Valley.  I remember being wildly engaged by the experience, and I also remember being puzzled as to why the finished painting didn't satisfy me. After all, I had been reasonably faithful about the ridge line of the mountains, the lake was in the right place, and the bright foliage hadn't turned into a caricature of fall colors. What was wrong?  It has taken me a very long ti ..read more

Two casual photos, below, of some of my work at the ArtHound Gallery, located at 21 Essex Way in Essex Junction, Vermont.  802-662-4808. The oils you see in these photos range in size from 18 x 24 to 30 x 48. There are many watercolors of mine also on exhibit at ArtHound.   ArtHound gallery, one of the largest in Vermont, is a delight to visit. Check it out to enjoy an unimaginably wide variety of work from Vermont artists and artisans.          ..read more

Twenty six paintings -- mostly watercolors and two large oils-- are now up in the beautiful exhibit space of the Parish House of the Old Meetinghouse Church.  This church is located directly next to our home on Center Road in East Montpelier; I enjoy being about as local an artist as it's possible to be!     RECEPTION: 10:30 AM OCTOBER 9, 2022  Address: 1620 Center Road, East Montpelier, VT  (the Parish House hours are irregular, so call ahead to make sure the church is open) 802-229-9593   A few of the paintings in this exhibit, below:      ..read more

In 18 hours from the moment I post this blog, August of 2022 will have disappeared, and September will roll in with a set of places where I'll have my art exhibited. I've had a delicious summer of both studio and plein air painting.    ---The Vermont Watercolor Society Juried Awards Exhibit, October 23 to December 16, at the Gallery at Mad River in Waitsfield, VT (802-496-6682) Group Show.    --I have a 24 x 24 oil painting "Ephemeral Splendor"  (below) accepted into The Bryan Memorial Art Gallery's annual "Land, Light, Water and Air" exhibit in Jeffersonville, V ..read more

One of the best venues I've ever exhibited in is the Central Vermont Medical Center gallery, located in their spacious lobby. Fabulous in every way, given the excellent lighting, a gifted curator, and high visibility. These days, however, with fewer people in the hospital on account of COVID, it's less of an ideal place to exhibit a large body of work.  No matter. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to hang 16 paintings in a show entitled  "A Celebration of Seasons".  Included in the exhibit are botanical watercolors, some birds, and oil paintings that feature flowering trees ..read more