My Long And Wonderful Career As An Artist
The life and times of Susan Weinberg
Some few years before her death Susan said:
As I look back on my career of 40 years, I am very satisfied with what I see. I have lived the life of an artist, devoting myself to painting. My studio, Infinity Art Studio, Is the last and only studio left on the Boardwalk in Santa Monica and Venice. Living in my studio I have been able to paint every day – a joy for me .
Having the space to live and work in the studio has made it possible for me to focus on my painting and develop new techniques and methods. I would never have would have been able to do this coming into a studio every day from another place.
In the year 2000 I semi-retired from my business of designing and producing hand-painted fabric, furniture restoration, and teaching. During my years in business I had forgotten how to express myself. It took 4 years of constant painting for me to realize the difference between hand-painted fabric and fine art painting.
During these past 15 years I painted continuously, making mistake after mistake, and each mistake became another technique. In order to learn where to stop with a painting - it is necessary to go too far, time after time after time.
So now I am at a point where I paint for myself with no restrictions or expectations from showrooms and galleries. During the showroom years I worked with 34 different showroom managers across the United States, 8 of them from my major showrooms in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, and Santa Monica. The showroom managers and I worked together to produce patterns and colors of fabric that were asked for in those geographical areas. Each section of the country had slightly different needs, although my main methods of painting remained the same.
Sometimes the scale had to be smaller because the apartments were smaller. Sometimes the patterns had to be lavish, complex, filled with gold, and other cities needed more practical fabric that would hold up to the weather.
All this could be accomplished with ease, because everything was custom.
In the fine art field this is also possible. I specialize in producing paintings that can be custom painted according to size, shape, color, subject matter, and technique. My methods remain the same, but the details can be custom.
I look at fine art painting now the same way I looked at my fabric. They both are planned to be quiet pieces of art which stand in the background. They enhance the way a person looks standing in front of them. My newest series allows a viewer to step into my paintings with their own revelations and thoughts.
I want my work to be universal and long lasting – no political statements, no society issues, no problems to solve – just beautiful paintings that people can live with, which gives the viewer a chance to engage with the paintings in their own way. Everyone sees something different.
So now, here is the beginning of an update to my original website with some of the images painted in the past 15 years. In working out techniques I only painted 4 or 5 with the same techniques, just to be sure I had mastered the technique.
Some of my painting are straight oil or watercolor. My "unique magic" technique involves materials that do not mix. Some of these are – water, oil, mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, pigments (both oil and acrylic), metallic powders, metallic colors, stains, roofing tar, white pigment (with no binder) , papers, marble dust, sand, clay, and anything else that would stick with the paint.
Method, materials and equipment are all important. An opaque projector was a tool I used to get certain effects. Painting in the dark was another use for the projector. I also do shadow painting. I found out that anything will work and look good if I use good materials, using good paint with beautiful colors; or using neutrals or old messy paint that I could mix for textures and for paint separation. I know more about paint and how it reacts than almost anyone I know. The tools, such as brushes, sponges, foam rubber, sticks, and even brooms and mops, are used to apply the paint and make a big difference in the way the paint moves on the canvas or paper - making their own distinctive mark.
As I look back on my career of 40 years, I am very satisfied with what I see. I have lived the life of an artist, devoting myself to painting. My studio, Infinity Art Studio, Is the last and only studio left on the Boardwalk in Santa Monica and Venice. Living in my studio I have been able to paint every day – a joy for me .
Having the space to live and work in the studio has made it possible for me to focus on my painting and develop new techniques and methods. I would never have would have been able to do this coming into a studio every day from another place.
In the year 2000 I semi-retired from my business of designing and producing hand-painted fabric, furniture restoration, and teaching. During my years in business I had forgotten how to express myself. It took 4 years of constant painting for me to realize the difference between hand-painted fabric and fine art painting.
During these past 15 years I painted continuously, making mistake after mistake, and each mistake became another technique. In order to learn where to stop with a painting - it is necessary to go too far, time after time after time.
So now I am at a point where I paint for myself with no restrictions or expectations from showrooms and galleries. During the showroom years I worked with 34 different showroom managers across the United States, 8 of them from my major showrooms in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, and Santa Monica. The showroom managers and I worked together to produce patterns and colors of fabric that were asked for in those geographical areas. Each section of the country had slightly different needs, although my main methods of painting remained the same.
Sometimes the scale had to be smaller because the apartments were smaller. Sometimes the patterns had to be lavish, complex, filled with gold, and other cities needed more practical fabric that would hold up to the weather.
All this could be accomplished with ease, because everything was custom.
In the fine art field this is also possible. I specialize in producing paintings that can be custom painted according to size, shape, color, subject matter, and technique. My methods remain the same, but the details can be custom.
I look at fine art painting now the same way I looked at my fabric. They both are planned to be quiet pieces of art which stand in the background. They enhance the way a person looks standing in front of them. My newest series allows a viewer to step into my paintings with their own revelations and thoughts.
I want my work to be universal and long lasting – no political statements, no society issues, no problems to solve – just beautiful paintings that people can live with, which gives the viewer a chance to engage with the paintings in their own way. Everyone sees something different.
So now, here is the beginning of an update to my original website with some of the images painted in the past 15 years. In working out techniques I only painted 4 or 5 with the same techniques, just to be sure I had mastered the technique.
Some of my painting are straight oil or watercolor. My "unique magic" technique involves materials that do not mix. Some of these are – water, oil, mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, pigments (both oil and acrylic), metallic powders, metallic colors, stains, roofing tar, white pigment (with no binder) , papers, marble dust, sand, clay, and anything else that would stick with the paint.
Method, materials and equipment are all important. An opaque projector was a tool I used to get certain effects. Painting in the dark was another use for the projector. I also do shadow painting. I found out that anything will work and look good if I use good materials, using good paint with beautiful colors; or using neutrals or old messy paint that I could mix for textures and for paint separation. I know more about paint and how it reacts than almost anyone I know. The tools, such as brushes, sponges, foam rubber, sticks, and even brooms and mops, are used to apply the paint and make a big difference in the way the paint moves on the canvas or paper - making their own distinctive mark.
Please enjoy my Paintings and Contact or go to Infinity Studio.
Copyright 2021 Susan Weinberg
Copyright 2021 Susan Weinberg
