Top Half Clockwise from Top Left Corner:
MARGARET WISE BROWN, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor on canvas, 30 x 40", 2016;
LYDIA DAVIS, oil, acrylic, watercolor on canvas, 18 x 24", 2016;
ANNE SEXTON, watercolor, gouache, acrylic on masonite, 8 x 8", 2015;
DYLAN THOMAS, acrylic and watercolor on masonite, 8 x 8", 2015;
JOHN STEINBECK, acrylic and guache on masonite, 8" x 8", 2015;
PETER MATTHIESSEN AND JAMES SALTER, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor on canvas, 30 x 40", 2016
Middle: Artist Valerie Suter
Bottom Half Clockwise from Upper Left Corner:
A MOVEABLE FEAST: ERNEST HEMINGWAY, GERTRUDE STEIN, JAMES JOYCE, AND F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor on canvas, 30 x 40", 2016;
DAVID BOWIE, acrylic, gouache, glitter on masonite, 12 x 18 in., 2016;
VIRGINIA WOOLF #2, oil on masonite, 8 x 14", 2015;
MARK TWAIN, acrylic, watercolor, gouache on masonite, 8x 8", 2015;
PATRICIA HIGHSMITH, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor on masonite, 8 x 8", 2015
“I’ve always loved reading, and I cherish the work of so many authors. I think of painting as a way to honor and respond to them, to put them on stage while trying to make contact with something in there persona or to better understand who they are or were.”
What inspired you to paint writers?
IT began when I was living in London years ago near where Virginia Woolf once lived; she was on my mind a lot, and since I was studying art at the time, I made a painting based on a photograph of her that I loved. Later on, I noticed that I kept gravitating towards author photographs when searching for subjects to paint and decided to do a series specifically focused on writers. I made a book out of the paintings for the L.A. Art Book Fair this past year that had excerpts of the authors’ work alongside the images and the series has grown from there.
I’ve always loved reading, and I cherish the work of so many authors. I think of painting as a way to honor and respond to them, to put them on stage while trying to make contact with something in there persona or to better understand who they are or were. We have so many fleeting encounters with impermanent images today and making a painting seems like a way to commemorate something or someone by means of an ancient and more lasting medium. — Via 'The Art of Imagining: Valerie Suter's Literary Paintings'
Valerie Suter was born in New York and spent most of her childhood on the east end of Long Island. Although her family moved away from the area after she graduated from the Amagansett School, they returned most summers. While in college she had a summer job working at Estia’s in Amagansett, an experience she remembers fondly as deepening her connection to the unique community of people who call the East End home. Growing up amid such a vibrant enclave of artists and writers was both inspiring and formative.
She went on to study visual art at Central St. Martins College of Art & Design in London, received a BA in modern history from McGill University in Montreal, and spent several years working in publishing in New York. As an artist she has exhibited in New York, London, Montreal, and Los Angeles, and has produced work for the Bruce High Quality Foundation, Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair, Anthropologie, and Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter, among others. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
"Writers and Storytellers of the East End and Beyond" by Valerie Suter
Estia's Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor
The show is up March 1 - April 26
Reception will be Sunday, April 10th from 4-6pm
The paintings presented in Writers and Storytellers of the East End and Beyond are part of a recent series that explores the act of imagining – in both visual and verbal realms – and pays homage to those who have touched, inspired, and illuminated our world with their words, voices, and stories.
Los Angeles, California
valeriesuter.com