Mixed Media - Nature, Messages and Figurative
Susan Ashley was born in Ohio and currently lives in California. She graduated from UC Berkeley and received a scholarship to SF Academy of Art where she studied anatomy. She also received a Signature membership to the California Watercolor Association.
Susan’s art reflects her desire to juxtapose the exotic with the familiar and her fascination with nature, travel, people and places. She weaves together elements of reality with fantasy using watercolor, collage, and digital art. Her colorful and rhythmic compositions convey feelings of joy, whimsy and adventure.
The artist’s creative imagination shines in her versatile use of Japanese rice papers or washi papers, and mulberry paper from Thailand. With them she achieves a myriad of textured surfaces. All of Susan’s collage and mixed media works of art are UV protected with acrylic medium and UV spray. A coating of wax is applied over the top surface to ensure utmost protection.
Susan’s many exhibitions in museums, galleries and organizations worldwide. Her art was shown in the “International Collage Exhibition and Exchange” art show at the New Zealand Museum in Taranaki, curated by Dale Copeland, renowned collage and assemblage artist. She has participated in group shows at the Bonita Museum and with the San Diego Art Museum Artists Guild members at the Olaf Wieghorst Museum.
In 2019, the Gestalt Projects commissioned her to create a work of art which was presented in the “Bouquett-Show” at BG Gallery. A Biblical artwork of collage, Shepherd in Awe was sold, 2012, at the Dallas Museum of Biblical Art. She has also received portrait commissions and her art is in many collections worldwide.
Susan’s numerous awards include those from Fine Arts League of Cupertino Academy of Art, the National Association of Women Artists, and the California Watercolor Association, among others. Manhattan Arts International gave her an Award of Excellence in its “Hot Topics – Bold Expressions” competition juried by Renee Phillips, Director, and James Bacchi, owner of ArtHaus Gallery. She was also selected for the juried exhibition “The Healing Power of Art”, curated by Phillips who commented, “Susan Ashley is a natural storyteller with an ability to inspire a positive visceral response. She invites us to interpret her layers of imagery, materials and symbolic meaning to deepen our understanding about the world in which we live.”
Her art has been featured in several publications including Professional Artist magazine, the Cupertino Courier, Art Quench Magazine, Our Hometown Magazine in Chula Vista and Salann Magazine. Her art has also been published in the Creative Quarterly and she is included in the Online Catalog of Professional Artists.
I am now featured in the Healing Power of Art & Artists with the Manhattan Arts.com
