ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES - SUSAN RIOS

Susan Rios’ artistic potential was apparent even as a child. Largely self-taught, her inimitable style and attention to detail are evident even in her earliest pen-and-ink drawings. The ability to evoke familiar feelings within her viewers is the hallmark of Rios’ work and the wellspring of her beckoning style.

Rios is a California resident, and her home is very reminescent of the images she paints. She works with acrylics, devoting herself to one image at a time. Many aspects of her world are subects in her paintings—her daughter Olivia, her granddaughter Rosie, her cats, her collectibles, her pillows, and so on. Flowers are an ever-present theme in her paintings, which ties in to her background of floral arranging. Also present in her paintings are decorative items for the home such as wicker, lace, fringe and teacups.

Rios’ impressionistic style emerged as she studied the colorations of Matisse and Monet. She often says that her favorite color is white, and admires the play of white in the works of artist Gustav Klimt. The vivid environments and gentle subjects she selects are always depicted optimistically, as if testament to the possibility of “happily ever after” outcomes.

Says Rios: “All the decisions in the world are present in a blank canvas—every choice is mine to make. As I make those choices and the painting progresses, I weave stories about them: Who is there? What are they doing? What is that woman thinking about as she walks alone at the ocean's edge?”