Susan Downing-White

The idea of becoming an artist surely was planted when my family moved from Chicago to Miami Beach. I was eight. Overnight, my known world of black and white city streets became a land of emerald, coral, and aquamarine. I had my first taste of coastal skies there and have lived by water ever since, in New Orleans and now Mobile, in a historic neighborhood called Oakleigh. I paint in a north-facing third-floor classroom in the creative community of artists, Central Arts Collective, housed in the Central Presbyterian building. I studied graphic design at Auburn University for part of a year, briefly considered architecture, then dropped out of formal education to explore the domestic arts. Later, I resumed formal education at the University of South Alabama and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree. I learned to gild frames and use Photoshop from books. Working three years in art conservation allowed me the privilege of studying paintings from museums and fine private collections while I repaired passages of lost paint. My paintings may be seen at Cole Pratt Gallery in New Orleans and Ashland Gallery in Mobile. I teach workshops in oil painting once or twice a year, and am working on a book that describes my method and work.