Susan Vecsey

Susan Vecsey is a New Jersey-born artist who is known for creating paintings that evoke memories of places visited in the past. The artist spends time in both New York City and East Hampton, having earned her Master of Fine Arts from the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.

The artist says she is interested in creating lyrical and poetic themes using imagery that is derived from nature. In a recent review, Gabrielle Selz wrote, “Inspired by painters like Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery and Helen Frankenthaler- all of whom explored the variance of tonality on limited compositional formats- Vecsey creates work that is filled with ideas about arrangement, lyrical color, perspective, repetition and surface.”

Vecsey has a unique process of layering the paint which is why her paintings appear so unique. First, she dilutes the oil pigments with turpentine; then Vecsey thins it into a material that resembles the consistency of watercolors. Vescey uses her expertise to drip the paint onto the warm-colored linen canvas.

The artist then guides the set line with a palette knife… cognizant that she cannot control the diffusion of colors. Vecsey remains committed to the initial sketch that organically turned into a study of the material, color, and  representative line. The end result is an abstract composition that is a study of raw emotion and simple materials.

Last summer, Vecsey put on a solo exhibition at Betty Campbell in New York City. The title of the show, “In Between” is of a time-sensitive manner. Today it can be extended to reference the strange period we are living through- quarantine. Her landscape influenced abstract pieces are always subtle and “simple.” However, the natural world is neither subtle nor simple and Vecsey’s paintings are here to remind us of that.

At Vecsey’s solo museum exhibition at the Greenville County Museum in South Carolina in 2017, the paintings show that the artist is less involved with the “here and now.” She is not using everyday details as her inspiration; rather, Vecsey is attempting to remind you of places where you have been to.

The far-reaching lines of the extended horizon and the sweeping and bulbous curves that are a mix of tonal colors. Phyllis Tuchman wrote an essay for the exhibition’s catalogue that said, “Unlike, say Fairfield Porter, another East End artist, Vecsey is less involved with the here and now. She’s not recording the details of daily lift. She’s reminding you of places where you have been. With swooping cures, extended horizon lines, and a mix of tonal colors, Vescey’s compelling images have the character of memories, recollections, reveries. You’re revisiting sites of pleasure and wonderment.”

Clearly, direct observations of landscape are Vecsey’s starting point. This remains a way to illustrate a certain emotion and to explore color, form, and shape.

Vecsey says (courtesy of Sag Harbor Express), “There is a great pleasure in the whole process of creating from the anticipation, the processing to the realization. With poured paint, timing is everything and it is important to be decisive with it and also ready to accept or reject the unexpected.”