Susan Straiton has been a full-time artist in the County for forty years.

Born in Ontario, where she established her first studio in 1974, she relocated out west for a while. She says, “when I came back from the Rockies I wanted a place where I could see lots of sky and sunsets and water you can swim in, because they don’t have that out there.”

She found a home in the County, which, at the time, had a small artist community, centered around Anne House, who established the Mad Dog Gallery in 1990. That community has only grown larger since then.

Her paintings are of familiar landscapes, rendered new in paint. The landscape may change, she notes, “like they say about water, it changes all the time. The other day we drove up to Belleville, and seeing all the ash trees killed by the borer, I thought that’s going to make a change and my paintings.”

But so does the artist: “how you see it changes. I’ve evolved into a looser style. I think the changes have come about in my work to find a simpler way to say more with less paint.”

Ms. Straiton’s work of the last eight years in her evolution as a painter will be on display at Mad Dog Gallery until September 7^th. See Mad Dog Gallery for details.