Susan Parker
Susan Parker has an encyclopedic memory of wave patterns, horizons, tide lines, and atmospheric conditions she has seen and experienced from her boat. She considers My Element, her 2022-2023 wide-ranging series of water paintings, to be highly experimental as she documents the infinite permutations of water conditions. An experienced sailor with more than thirty years’ experience racing on the bay and a studio that looks out directly onto Islais Creek, Parker has the privilege of an intimate relationship with water. Each painting in My Element shows a different side of her muse’s personality. Parker’s work has been acquired by the Crocker Art Museum, Monterey Museum of Art, and the Triton Museum of Art. Scroll down to learn more about Susan Parker.
San Francisco artist Susan Parker’s paintings, labeled variously with titles such as Line of Sight, West Harbor and Fog on the Water are abstract views of the seascape around her — all meticulously detailed with true blue colors — and yet her waves evoke a particularly California landscape of parched cracked earth under open skies. In one gripping work, Angel Island is a mirage in her painted desert.
— Zahid Sardar, Design Editor, San Francisco
Susan's paintings are beautiful. Her careful brushstrokes fill the surface with tiny details that are revealed up close. Her water paintings document the countless variations in color along a horizon or where water meets the shore, varying from abstract to realism. As avid sailors, her work reminds us of sunsets, beaches, and our love of the water.
— Kelly Kennedy and Andrew Tambellini, collectors
Without a doubt, Susan Parker is passionate about water. She lives, sails, and paints it - in its many moods and iterations. Her passion is infectious and leads the viewer to see water in so many detailed ways. These silent offerings are like meditations on the myriad ways water manifests, bringing the viewer to also experience that passion.
— Sharon Dellamonica, Art Dealer
Susan Parker’s paintings of the ocean do more than contrast the hypnotic movement of waves, the patterns within the water, and how light reflects off of them. She immerses you, the viewer, into the water. You are not a viewer but a participant. You are not on a boat – you are the boat, assessing the noisy clouds above, the potential storm ahead, lulled into a false sense of safety by the lapping waves. You in the water, looking ahead, parting the waves with your arms and swimming out to sea. Parker’s skill is seductive and her paintings have lured you in with no promises of a happy ending just being in the present moment for as long as possible. The pleasure of observation and being present override any pre-existing goals.
— Jeremy Stone ASA, Business Matters in the Visual Arts
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Line of Sight 2
2022
acrylic on panel
20 x 20 inches
$2,500
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Line of Sight 1
2022
acrylic on canvas over panel
20 x 20 inches
$2,500 -
West Harbor 4
2022
acrylic on panel
20 x 20 inches
$2,500
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West Harbor 1
2022
acrylic on panel
16 x 16 inches
$1,800 -
West Harbor 2
2022
acrylic on panel
16 x 16 inches
$1,800
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Line of Sight 4
2023
acrylic on panel
12 x 12 inches
$1,400
Susan Parker's solo exhibition, My Element, features work from her recent water series. Almost all the paintings in this series were started and developed aboard Parker's "alternate studio," a fully functional, classic wooden boat with a view of San Francisco Bay. An avid sailor with 35 years’ experience racing on the bay and a studio overlooking Islais Creek, Parker has the privilege of an intimate relationship with the sea. Her stored recollections of marine conditions are continually refreshed, refueled, and augmented every time she goes sailing on the Bay. Each painting in the My Element series shows a different side of her muse's personality.
In 2021, Parker shifted her primary focus from creating large, low-relief, color-saturated surfaces to painting the very element she has spent so much time in: water. She sees painting water as a thrilling challenge and considers this series with a wide range of styles to be experimental as she teaches herself to capture the beauty in mystery of the ocean and of San Francisco Bay in particular. Provocative middle distance horizon lines and naïvely painted dancing waves invite the viewer to come to their own conclusions. Some paintings resemble a blue desert of cracked earth. And some capture the dancing reflection of the sun, creating patterns akin to radio waves.
Parker started painting at a young age when she joined her mother in drawing and painting classes. She enrolled in Hampshire College just one year after the experimental liberal arts institution opened, studying under the School of Arts and Humanities. In 1979 she received a summer scholarship to the Academy of Art in San Francisco. There she focused on painting, drawing, plein air watercolors, and experimented with realism, abstraction, and mixed media painting, challenging herself to acquire new skills and techniques.
Parker grew up sailing with her parents and siblings, all of whom loved boats and being on the water. When she arrived in San Francisco in 1979, the lure was not only the invitation to attend the Academy of Art, but also to live in a city noted for its sailing opportunities. In the early 1980s, she and her partner started participating in local, low-key sailing events commonly known as "beer can races." By the late 80s, they had joined a local, competitive, One Design racing fleet and they continue to be active and passionate participants.