Susan Harrison-Tustain

New Zealand artist Susan Harrison-Tustain is acclaimed internationally. She was encouraged to paint at an early age and was particularly inspired by the rich depth of color and evocative lighting captured by Rembrandt.

Initially Susan painted in oils, but after her switch to watercolors her career as a professional artist really began. Mostly self-taught, she absorbed information about watercolor from any and every source and combined what she learned with her own innate abilities. Without the constraints imposed by formal training she developed her own skill and techniques, pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved by watercolor. Her intent has always been to retain the delicacy of watercolors, but she also builds up multiple layers of fine washes to provide richness and depth when appropriate.

Susan's choice of subjects and the naturalistic realism style of her painting reflect a belief in the power of beauty to enrich our lives and enhance our positive emotional responses. She wants viewers of her art works to be uplifted and seeks to achieve this by highlighting such delights as the lusciousness of a newly opened rose, the relaxing and re-energizing power of a walk by the ocean or the mellowing and calming effect of time-worn books.

Her book 'Glorious Garden Flowers in Watercolor' (North Light Books, Cincinnati) has been a best seller of its type, published in both hard and soft cover and a Chinese language version. You will also find her work in 'Splash 6', 'Splash 7' and 'Splash 8' (North Light Books). Susan's work has been on several prestigious magazine covers and within the pages of many publications and she has featured twice on television. She conducts workshops in both the US and New Zealand. Her exhibitions attract a great deal of attention from within New Zealand and from overseas and she achieves prices for her work which are rare for a living artist.

In Susan’s three 2-disc DVD sets currently available she holds nothing back in teaching her multi-layered transparent watercolor techniques. Learn how she creates beautiful, luminous paintings that glow. Understand the reasons for everything she does, so you can adapt her methods to your own subjects and artistic expression.

Susan Harrison-Tustain's DVD's