Suzanne Douglass

"Her still lifes, riverscapes, and faces are familiar to all who have toured the galleries of Lambertville, and other exhibitions in the area... Quiet, serene, soft paletted, and tender works of familiar objects, or sometimes scenes, are the earmarks of works by Douglass. They impart a feeling of inner peace, not unlike their creator."
-Doris Brandes

Born in Western Pennsylvania, Suzanne Douglass lived and painted in Bucks County and the neighboring Hunterdon County beginning in the 1950s. After graduating from the Pittsburgh Art Institute, Douglass relocated to Wilmington, Delaware to study under Frank Scoonover and Frank Dell Dunne, of the N.C. Wyeth/Howard Pyle School and later under guidance of Margaret Yard Tyles in Montclair, New Jersey. She established herself as a leading portrait artist in the Bucks County community, living first in Washington Crossing and, in 1971, moving across the river to Lambertville where she spent the next thirty years.

Initially gaining notoriety for her sensitive portraiture, Douglass eventually began to move away from the strictly representational in her works towards a more impressionistic approach. She started employing a soft, muted palette and using an extensive underpainting to create a distinctive, almost mystical look, as if her subjects-most often faces, still life arrangements of fruit, or haunting landscapes-were appearing through a haze. To Douglass, the most important aspect of her paintings was the quality of light and how it is reflected on various surfaces. "On pots, the rims of cups, the tops of apples. I care a lot about light," she admitted in a 1989 interview with the New Hope Gazette. "After all, light is what painting is all about." Despite developing macular degeneration in both her eyes in 1991, leaving her legally blind, Douglass continued to successfully paint and exhibit at many galleries in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Her acclaimed portraits are in private collections throughout the United States.

Education
Pittsburgh Art Institute

Teachers and Influences
Frank Scoonover, Frank Dell Dunn, Margaret Yard Tyles

Connection to Bucks County
Douglass lived in Bucks County or in the neighboring Hunterdon County, NJ for over fifty years, stating that she would be crushed if she ever had to leave.

Exhibitions
Family Values, Mixed Media Gallery, Doylestown, PA, 2005
Lambertville and the Surrounding Area, Coryell Gallery, Lambertville, NJ, 2000, 2004
Phillips' Mill Annual Art Exhibition, New Hope, PA, 1967, 1991, 1993, 2003
Two from Lambertville, Hrefna Jonsdottir Gallery, Lambertville, NJ, 1999
High Art/Low Vision, The Lighthouse, New York, NY, 1995
A Taste of Tastebuds, Tastebuds, New Hope, PA, 1994
Oils by Suzanne Douglass: Still Lifes, Landscapes, Heads, Artfull Eye Exhibition Gallery, Lamberville, NJ, 1989
Zelda Fitzgerald Exhibition, Phillips' Mill, New Hope, PA, 1983
Nine Women, Stover Mill, Upper Black Eddy, PA, 1980
Green Sergeants Covered Bridge Association, Stockton, NJ, 1979

Awards
Casimir and Jane Sienkiewicz Memorial Award for Traditional Oil Painting, Phillips' Mill, 1991
Renee McNeely Memorial Award for Representational Oil Painting, Phillips' Mill, 1993
Award for Oil Painting in Memory of Esther Pace, Phillips' Mill, 2003