November at Arts on Douglas October 16 2025
CHASING LIGHT
Paintings by Susan Martin
On Exhibit: November 1 - December 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 1, 4-7 PM
Artist Talk: Friday, November 14, 11 AM
Image: Down to the River by © Susan Martin
About the Exhibition
For this alt_space exhibition, Susan Martin presents Chasing Light – a series of hyper-realistic paintings that celebrate the visual richness of the botanical world. Ranging in size from 10 x 10 to 50 x 60 inches, Martin’s paintings capture vignettes from nature that highlight both the scale and intimacy of densely packed habitats within larger landscapes. For each piece, Martin paints from her own photographs, often cropping in closely to reveal intricate details. She refers to her paintings as abstractions, stating: “from foreground to background, within positive and negative spaces, every shape and form is of equal importance.”
Martin first developed a fondness for the natural environment in her youth. She remembers venturing into the mesquite woods behind her childhood home and feeling transported into another world with “umbrella-like tree castles harboring life that could be sensed more than seen, with birds, toads, insects, and other lifeforms carefully camouflaged among the winding vines, flowers, branches, and leaves.”
When Martin began creating botanical paintings as an adult, her childhood memories, emotions, and observations came rushing back, fueling her to continue exploringthis theme, leading her to create these vibrant, tack-sharp paintings, brimming with flora and fauna, that she is known for today.
From North Carolina hikes in the fall, to strolls through the ancient woods of Luxembourg, and even wanderings through her own overgrown garden, Martin’s painstakingly detailed paintings of these environments reveal the visual complexity, interconnectedness, and competition of life, unsupervised by humans. Instead of observing the landscape from the outside looking in, Martin gets in the middle of it to provide viewers with an immersive experience. It is her hope that viewers will slow down and step inside each composition, taking in their surroundings as they reflect on their own memories and sensations of time spent in nature.
Image: Personal Space by © Susan Martin
About the Artist
Susan Martin studied art at the University of Texas at Austin and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art. Realizing that she wanted to share her interest through teaching, Martin continued with coursework in Art Education. A significant part of her extended university experience was the opportunity to study photography and composition under the eminent photographer Russell Lee, best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). His influence, though in a different medium, can be traced to the crisp textures and edges revealed by light on forms, deep contrasts, and tight compositions.
Martin’s paintings are exhibited in competitive and invitational settings throughout the country. The artist has been featured in more than a dozen solo exhibits, including a 5-month exhibit at the Appleton Museum and another solo at the Polk Museum of Art.
Fifteen corporations have purchased Martin’s paintings for their collections, among them Chugai-Upjohn, Marriott, Southern Progress Corporation, and McGraw-Hill. Her work has been published in New American Paintings, and in both 2021 and 2022, as an award winner in the Artist Magazine’s Best of Acrylic Special Issues.