Artist Profile

This is artist Suzy Sansom's 8th year participating in Napa Valley Open Studios where the artist offers for exhibit or sale her most recent collection of figure drawings from life, as well as colorful local landscapes and fun, figurative works on paper.

At the Academy of Art College where she received her BA in Illustration in 1988, Suzy discovered her strength was drawing the figure. In school is when she discovered her medium of choice–oil pastel–and it's then when the artist took her love of drawing the figure to the next level.

Through her whimsical "Weird Women" painting series, Suzy delights in creating her "shapely", sometimes bawdy, always fun-loving gals, engaging them in some of life's simplest, most joyous pleasures! "If my art brings a smile to someone's lips or a giggle, then I've done my job well", says the artist, whose wine label illustration for "Big Ass Cab" (Adler Fels Winery) has won many fans nationwide, as well as the Silver Medal for Best Individual Wine Label Art at the 2004 International Wine Competition in San Francisco.

Most recently, the artist has created a series of landscapes celebrating the local colors of the wine country. Greeting cards by Proteus Workshop featuring Suzy's landscapes, can be found at retailers throughout Napa and Sonoma Counties. The artist works as a commercial artist out of her home studio in downtown Napa, and shows her work at local festivals, galleries and art auctions throughout the year.