In The Spotlight With Landscape Artist E S DeSanna

By Terry Dagrosa on June 5, 2016 • ( 2 )

WAAM is pleased to present our exclusive interview with artist E S DeSanna, a Hudson Valley painter and print maker inspired by all travel, nature and beauty.

WAAM: How would you describe yourself?

Sue: I’m a painter and a printmaker. Years ago, I started working with watercolor, transitioned into pastel, oils, and now I’m a printmaker, as well. Sometimes I combine some of these into one piece. I like to travel, and my trips always have an art-making component. Travel to other places gives a freshness, a requirement to see differently and process those elements into my art. I love reliving my “adventures” later, much better than snapshots.

WAAM: Are you a Hudson Valley native? If not, what brought you here and how long ago?

Sue: I grew up on Long Island NY, attended School of Visual Arts, then SUNY New Paltz 50 years ago. I never really left. I’ve lived in different towns in Ulster County, and consider it my true home.

WAAM: What & why do you create?

Sue: Process is important to me, more important than fame or fortune. I truly enjoy learning and exploring different techniques in my work. Printmaking especially gives me that opportunity. I am most definitely a landscape artist. My images are almost always derived from the world around me. I’ve always loved the country landscape and having a sense of exploring. When I paint and sketch en plein air, I am deepening my connection to nature, exploring one little area at a time. In the studio, I can conjure those feelings of total immersion from my sensory memory. Making art is a meditation, my “flow”.

WAAM: What is your sustaining inspiration?

Sue: It’s all gorgeous to me. I love seeing cloud shadows on the mountains, color changes as light waxes and wanes, the sound of the creeks and rivers, the silence of the woods. Living here in the Valley never gets old.

WAAM: Do you have a job to support your art? How is it relevant?

Sue: After a career teaching fashion design, I am now happily engaged in working and volunteering at WAAM, and I monitor printmaking classes and volunteer for odd jobs at the Woodstock School of Art. I also teach pastel painting privately, and occasionally at the Art School of Columbia County and the Arts Society of Kingston. These things allow me to engage with other artists and maintain a connection to my choice of community. It’s all totally relevant.

Thank you Sue!