Profile

Susan Abma has taken extensive art training since growing up in Montreal, Quebec. In the past 10 years she has taken oil painting under Gene Prokop in Edmonton, Alberta and drawing/oil painting under master Chinese artist Xin Yu Zheng, also in Edmonton. She has also taken numerous workshops with other talented artists such as Doug Swinton, Bev Tosh, and William Rodgers, among others. Susan currently resides in Leduc, Alberta.

Susan’s portfolio includes portraits of major corporate executives, government officials, family portraits and various industry workers (farmers, miners, etc.).

She is a voracious reader - this has been instrumental in teaching her many options in oil painting, as well as lessons in composition, color harmony, technique and much more. And, she has studied the works of the Masters to gain insight into their techniques and the spirit they gave each of their creations.

Susan has shown her work in many venues. Through these shows and other contacts she has made, Susan acquires commission work and loves the opportunity to paint portraits in particular.

Susan has many years of experience in marketing, promotion and advertising, as well as newspaper and magazine design. She owns the very popular national art magazine: Canadian Brushstroke Magazine.

Artist Statement

I always try to create oil paintings that touch my heart and make me fall in love over and over again. Only then can I help others feel what I feel as I put the brush to canvas, and evoke from them the emotions that run rampant through me as I softly touch the brush to a cheek or a branch or a loose curl on a child’s forehead.

I’m strongly pulled towards portraiture, landscape and still life. I work in a realist fashion and strive to achieve an exact likeness of my subjects with that extra ‘je ne sait quoi’ that makes my subjects important and interesting.

When painting, I strive to make my work the best it can possibly be, and I continuously seek new avenues to learn more and make my best become even better in the future.