Juxtaposed: Suzanne Reed Fine’s Works from both the American Southeast and Southwest

Written by Greysen Strumpler

Images courtesy of the artist

Suzanne Reed Fine is an artist, art educator, and art advocate based in Columbus, Georgia,. Suzanne is represented by Highland Galerie and Two Sisters Gallery, both in Columbus, and is represented by C. Waters Gallery in Creede, Colorado. In addition to her presence in these galleries, she has also exhibited around the country, and she has also been included in many publications and selected for awards such as Artists’ Magazine’s ‘Top 10 Artists to Watch,’ as well as selected for the Edgar Ewing Award for the National Watercolor Society amongst many other honors.

Growing up in Colorado, which has a vastly different geographical area compared to Georgia, Suzanne was accustomed to the warm tones and crisp lines in the landscapes there. After moving to Georgia, Suzanne quickly noticed the difference in the landscape; Georgia’s landscapes are not crisp, but tend to be softer with cooler colors and a humidity that can be seen. Suzanne’s work is easily recognized: she gracefully balances on a tightrope between abstraction and representation while overlapping the two. Her love of colors shine in her work, taking center stage as she uses them as a form of communication, juxtaposing the heavily chromatic palettes from the Colorado landscape against the softer palette of Georgia that tends to be more influenced by the humid climate. Suzanne says that the Southwest influences her use of bright colors and crisp lines while the Southeast led her to implement the effects of humidity and heaviness of the air in her paintings by using opaque and sometimes, muted, colors. At her first arrival in Georgia, she described the humidity as ‘a weight on her chest.’ In Colorado, the air was light, and everything tended to be crisp and clear. These two juxtaposing environments are exhibited in her work with both sharp lines against smooth transitions, as well as bright hues against muted, opaque colors.

When asked about her process, Suzanne describes a flow of work that seems like a conversation with her artwork. Giving and taking, backing up and walking forward to the piece, listening to the piece of art, as well as giving a specific piece a break to return to it are all elements of her process. These actions translate into a clear and dynamic relationship between the artist and her work, and not when where the artist seems to struggle against the medium as well as the artwork itself. When working, Suzanne doesn’t always begin with a clear idea or concept; she begins with colors. The colors guide her towards the resolution of her work even from the beginning. Blocking off certain sections with color, determining moment by moment where to continue with her color. She describes her process as ‘very energetic.’

Suzanne works primarily with acrylic and watercolor paint mediums. Because of the quick drying time of acrylic paint, Suzanne finds this more suitable to her quickly moving workflow. With the paint, she utilizes it in many different ways: using a brush, pouring, soaking, painting wet-into-wet, and painting wet-on-dry. As mentioned before, Suzanne’s relationship with her work seems to be one of patience. Her patience is clear as she discusses knowing when to stop a piece from getting overworked in one session. Many times, she allows the piece to sit somewhere separate for even up to a month so she may examine it later with fresh eyes and a new perspective. Compromise seems to be another element of her relationship with her work. When asked how she discerns which parts of her work should be abstract and which parts should be narrative, she explains that she allows the piece to decide the outcome. As she works, the piece informs her how it wants to resolve.

Recently, Suzanne showed her work in Narrative, an exhibition held at the Highland Galerie in Columbus. A question she posed while developing her work for the exhibit was “Do we get our ideas of who we are and where we come from?” She expanded by saying “We’re born into a set narrative of our parents, families, and ancestors. As we grow up and gain different experiences and opportunities, do we keep our initial narrative, or do we exchange it for something else? Is this how we grow?” Suzanne illustrated her ideas by using her current narrative in life right now; her children have moved out, and she seems to be at a crossroad with a situation she is not familiar with. This has led her to a point of reconfiguration within her narrative. “Where do I fit in this situation? What do I do in terms of my work? How do I give back to the community?” Though Suzanne is at a point of reassessment, she is both fluid and open to change.

Song of the Sisters, 2021-2022, Acrylic On Canvas, 48 x 30 x 1.50 in. Available here.

One piece that stands out within Narrative is Song of the Sisters. In this piece, she overlaps her interest in nature and gardens with her family. She contemplates her two daughters, who she says are quite opposite of each other. She uses colors found in the garden to express the differences, equating one of her daughters to the color green, and the other to pink.

As mentioned earlier, Suzanne describes her current stage of life as a reassessment. When asked about the future of her work as an artist, Suzanne not only described how she sees her artwork evolving, but ways that she will continue to contribute to the community. One thing that she mentioned was how she would like to continue teaching in one-on-one sessions, both to people beginning to create work and to people who are already in a career as an artist that may need to re-examine their process or perspective. In any way that Suzanne decides to contribute to the arts community, her presence will most certainly be noticed as she continues to grow as an established artist, serve as an advocate for the arts by investing time into galleries, and invest time into individuals by imparting her wisdom as an artist on a personal level. ◼️