Susan Blackwood

Starting with crayons on the wall, Susan has been an artist her entire life. Her family is full of artists: her sisters, parents, aunt, grandfather, great grandmother, great-great grandfather..… Her family has been traced back to Rembrandt’s parents. Her favorite medium is the medium in her hand at the moment. Art fulfills her passion to express herself visually. She paints everything. Her favorite subjects are the ones right in front of her, in life and in her photos. If these images stir her heart and her imagination, then they become paintings or sculptures to be passed down for generations. Her greatest desire is to capture this glorious life, so full of quiet beautiful moments, and transform them into lasting visual words of emotion, universally reaching the heart. 

From the beginning, Watercolor was her first love. In 1967, Blackwood began exhibiting and selling her watercolors. She continued in this medium  for 32 years before she ventured into the thick and gooey world of oil paint in 2003. Since then, both mediums fill her brushes and her studio in realistic styles or contemporary expression.

Her work has been exhibited in many galleries, museums, national and international exhibitions winning numerous awards and featured in articles, art books and on covers of national art magazines. In 2010 she won Best of Show at the National American Women Artists Exhibition in Dallas, TX. She has been awarded Signature Member Status in many artist organizations including the National Watercolor Society, the American Watercolor Society,  the American Impressionist Society and Oil Painters of America.  

Some of the other many ways Blackwood has used her creative talents includes: 12 stained glass windows ( 11 feet tall ) designed in 2016 for Resurrection Parish, the Chapel in Bozeman, Montana. Also, in 2022, one of her sculptures, “On Top of It”, was donated and permanently installed in the Public Library in Bella Vista, Arkansas. 

In 2019, Howard and Susan moved from beautiful Rocky Mountains of Bozeman, Montana to the city of Bella Vista, Arkansa, nestled in the rolling wonderful  mountains of the Ozarks with trees, lakes, waterfalls, creeks, cliffs and caves all to explore and paint. Bella Vista has opened Her arms to them. They have been invited to teach workshops and exhibit in exhibitions. In February, 2022, Blackwood was awarded with the honor of being Artist of the Month for the city of Bella Vista, Arkansas.

She is married to artist, Howard Friedland. It is a joy for them to share their art worlds in their studios and plein air around the world. Blackwood loves to teach and has been teaching artists in classes and workshops all over the USA and the world since 1975 ( in Pakistan ). In 1994, Susan began taking artists outside of the continental USA to paint plein air. First, She took them to paint in the Bahamas, then France, England and Italy. Blackwood and Friedland were married in 1998 and immediately, 1 week after their wedding they began teaching together in France. Blackwood and Friedland have now taught workshops all over Europe. In 2000, because of Covid, Blackwood began to teach on-line. Now her classes reach the world through her online Zoom Classes and many teaching videos. Blackwood has been featured as the Headline Demonstrating Artist in 2015 & 2016 for the Plein Air Convention and Expo (PACE) and on the International Broadcasts: Eric Rhodes Live; and Oil Painters of America - Lunch and Learn. In January of 2022, she was selected as one of 30 Top International Watercolorists, to teach at the Watercolor Live Convention. Her latest watercolor teaching video is being released April 2022. Her oil painting teaching video to be released 2023.

When asked about her life, Susan says. “I am very blessed to be able to see our world through the eyes of an artist.”