Susan Wahlrab is one of the few watercolorists we represent at Maine Art. If you have read about or seen her work and her process, you understand just how amazing this woman is. Yet, like so many with such gifts, the need to grow and change is ever present. An artist knows perfection is impossible but never the less it always remains the goal.
Wahlrab embraces the change, she even welcomes it. Noted more for her large landscapes, she has begun to focus in on a more specific piece rather than the beauty of the whole.
“Experience has led me to a whole new chapter. This lifetime of infusing with the natural world created a big “A-ha moment.” All of nature is represented in a flower,” shares Wahlrab, still amazed by the realization. “There is abundant literature, folklore, and symbolism related to flowers. Most people have their own connection and stories with these amazing creations. Even those living in a concrete space, in a high-rise, in a busy city, find a way to bring flowers into their lives.”
For Wahlrab it is Nature drawn to Nature. “For, after all, we as humans are nature.”
Susan refers to a quote from Einstein. “‘Look into Nature and you will understand everything.” Her grandmother passed this wisdom on when she was a small child. “The way I made sense of the world around me was by drawing whatever happened each day,” Wahlrab remembers. “Living in the woods, my time was spent exploring the magical world of trees, plants, rocks and nearby ocean.”
Wahlrab’s entire artistic career has been inspired by this connection to the essence of the landscape. “The results are a part of, what is at times, a maddening process of attempting to describe walking between worlds of matter and energy, seeing where everything, as Einstein said, merges,” explains Wahlrab.
“These are big changes for me,” Wahlrab states simply. “I am moving from the large landscape to exploring the natural world through flowers. It is all so exciting, and it is going very well. I have received great responses just from the images I have shared. No one has seen them in the flesh yet!”
This change began last fall, and Susan knows it will continue to evolve. She will reveal the new work for the first time in two shows. One being at Maine Art Shows beginning July 21 and running for three consecutive weeks. Please let us know if you would like to be kept updated on the arrival of this new work.
Wahlrab herself sums it up best. “As in spending time in the company of nature, the more you look, listen and feel, the more you will understand.”
To read more about Susan Wahlrab and her work and process click here – Susan Wahlrab – Artist Insights and Stories
To see our present collection of her work, click here. Susan Wahlrab – Artist Page