| Susan Lyon grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. Her initial interest in art was sparked by a PBS television show on Georgia O'Keefe, that inspired her to take drawing classes. Lyon studied art at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and was an active participant in Chicago's Palette and Chisel Club. It is there she first began exhibiting and selling her work; at twenty-three she was the youngest winner of the prestigious Gold Medal which she won two consecutive years in the annual Oil Painting show plus a third place in the Silver Medal show. Medal Watercolor show. She entered the Oil Painters of America show once and got 7th place. In 1998 and 2000 she won an artist choice award in the Northwest Rendezvous Show.
Susan draws inspiration from painters of the Guilded age such as Anders Zorn, Joaquin Sorolla and John Singer Sargent. She also is passionate about artists like Philip Malavin from Russia and contemporary masters Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik. Lyon's technique is to paint wet on wet to start and then wet on dry for her finishing touches. "My style is realistic with as much impressionistic color as possible. I like to combine wide brushes for sweeping strokes in the background with small, soft brushes for subtle details in my center of interest."
Susan Lyon lives in a rural area of North Carolina with her husband, artist Scott Burdick, whom she met at the Palette and Chisel in 1989 and married in 1993. She and her husband travel widely "The excitement of traveling, seeing so many new sights and people, plu incredible works in museums; combined with the challenge of painting on the spot make me a travel addict! Even before I go on a trip I'm planning the one after."
Susan works equally in Oil and Pastel/charcoal.
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