Artist: Suzy Sansom

Size: 21" x 29"

Media: Mixed Media on Paper

Suzy Sansom often begins her creations on paper with a simple graphite "doodle" of lines and shapes that form a pleasing composition. Then the artist will pull a figure out of those shapes, and in this manner, the dynamic, stylized subjects of her paintings are born.

At the Academy of Art College where she received her BA in Illustration in 1988, Suzy discovered her strength was drawing the figure. In school is when she discovered her medium of choice -- oil pastel -- and it's then when the artist took her love of drawing the figure to the next level. Her fanciful "Weird Women" painting series debuted in 1996. In this series, Suzy has delighted in creating her "shapely", sometimes bawdy, always fun-loving gals, and engaging them in some of life's simplest, most joyous pleasures! "If my art brings a smile to someone's lips or a giggle, then I've done my job well", says the artist, whose wine label illustrations for the "Big Ass" wine series (Adler Fels Winery) have won many fans nationwide, as well as the Silver Medal for Best Individual Wine Label Art on "Big Ass Cab" at the 2004 International Wine Competition in San Francisco.

In addition to her figurative work, Suzy has most recently created a series of landscapes celebrating the local colors of the wine country in the fall. Her present landscape series focuses on Carneros and Old Sonoma Road. Suzy has participated in several local art invitationals since moving from American Canyon to her present home/studio location in Old Towne Napa in 2004, including Jessel Miller's Napa Land Trust "Feast of Eden" annual benefit art auction, and the Napa Symphony's 2005 Art Strings painted violin benefit. For two weekends every fall, the artist opens her studio to the public during the Napa Valley Open Studios Tour.

When she is not painting for pleasure, Suzy works as a freelance illustrator. She illustrated a popular children's book, has worked for numerous print publications, is an illustrator of beverage and wine labels, and does home renderings for realtors throughout the Bay Area.