TRA Featured Item

"Winter" and "Summer" by Susan Kulbacki are a diptych which can be sold separately. They are signed giclees on canvas. A giclee is a high quality print on canvas or paper. These are signed by Susan. The canvases are floating inside a 2 1/2 inch thick curved wood frame. The image is a study of the same tree in summer and winter months. They would look great in a cottage setting. Since many of our clients were busy spending their last nice weekend at their cottages I thought these items would be fitting. Come in for a closer look. Below you will find the artist's bio."Summer" and "Winter" by Susan Kulbacki
Retail $1950 each Sale Price $695 each.

Bio

Susan Kulbacki has had a life-long love of art. Beginning with coloring books and mud pies, it gradually matured into the beautiful oil paintings for which Susan is now so well known. Her early love of nature has remained with her as well, and that love is apparent in much of her artwork.

Susan was fortunate because in the Detroit area where she was raised, the Public Schools had a wonderful partnership with the Detroit Institute of Art, and she was selected to participate in the Saturday morning program. She says, “My early training was crucial to my development as an adult.” Although she was only in the fifth grade, the children were allowed to paint in different galleries; one day they might be in the Picasso Gallery and the next day in a Gothic Gallery. Instructors would give brief talks and afterwards the students would paint or draw their impressions. The one rule was they were never allowed to copy. Susan also studied life drawing at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts.

During high school, Susan expanded her artistic horizons by taking part in theatre where she helped create and paint the sets. Because Susan’s father had dreams of her becoming an architect, she followed his advice and enrolled in mechanical drawing and drafting classes. Unfortunately, at that time women were not encouraged to study these traditionally male professions. Further discouraged when she found she was the only female in her classes, Susan rethought her career goals. Following her heart, she decided to instead pursue the arts.

After high school, Susan entered Michigan State University on a National Merit Scholarship. Remaining there for only a year, Susan moved to New York City despite her family’s strong disapproval. Eager to intensify and expand her involvement with art, the young artist wanted to explore the many artistic opportunities available in New York. Unfortunately, just a week after moving there, Susan was hit by a speeding taxi. While the recovery period was lengthy, Susan was aided in the healing process by her strong determination and attitude.

After recovering, Susan enjoyed the fast pace and exciting world that New York offered. Proximity to museums was an important factor in the jobs she held, which ranged from secretary and landscape gardener to a business Susan owned where she was an agent for artist’s models. Susan continued painting and drawing throughout this time, and the daily exposure to fine art gained through her trips to the Museum of Modern Art everyday after work were an education like nothing else she had experienced. Susan would sit in front of a painting for an hour or longer studying it until it “spoke” to her.

Susan moved from New York to Woodstock where she was very involved with the art community and met many established artists. In Woodstock, she had her first show, and continued studying art.

Several years later, Susan moved to New Mexico where she became very interested in the intensity of color and light, so different from the milky grayness of the East Coast. She says, “The color seemed to expand into a great space and then on into infinity.” It was here that she began painting her abstract “color field” paintings. Galleries noticed her work and shortly her work was being sold in the area’s finest art galleries.

After many years of showing her art in galleries across the country, Susan wanted to step back. She felt she was repeating herself in a kind of signature style and wasn’t creating, but rather just refining. Finding work with a traditional art gallery, Susan painted flowers, garden scenes, color field paintings and abstract garden scenes.

This venture paid off both personally and professionally as Susan met her future husband, and experienced growth as an artist.

The couple now lives in a small town snuggled in the mountains, along with their three large dogs and exotic birds. Susan paints for Rosenbaum and is delighted with the national exposure this association has brought and the wonderful open atmosphere she has found there.

Susan prefers to paint in a traditional style. She has a complicated palette that is cool over warm or vice-versa. She is passionate about her painting and likes to do it all. For years, she has kept files on her ideas and never has a “dry spell.” She likes to layer her art and loves texture. Susan appreciates every artist and style. Going back to her early years in New York, Susan still utilizes her technique of sitting in front of a painting until it “speaks” to her.

Susan has maintained her love of nature and if she cannot be found in her art studio, she can be found in her garden. Her husband teases her that all she needs to be happy on her birthday is a truckload of well-rotted horse manure. Her grandmother’s love of sewing and quilting, passed on to Susan when she was just a little girl, lives on in Susan today. And traveling, where she can find further inspiration for her painting remains a favorite pastime.

As Beethoven needed to compose, Susan needs to pant. She says, she depends on art. And after thirty years of creating her beautiful and inspired paintings, Susan likes to quote a one-hundred year old Japanese artist who says, “I’m just finally getting it, and it just keeps getting better and better.” Susan gets it too.

"Summer" and "Winter" by Susan Kulbacki
Retail $1950 each Sale Price $695 each.