Susan Lais Hostetler

Watercolor paints and also pen & ink are Susan Lais Hostetler’s tools for her award-winning art spanning over two decades. Her style is generally loose and fresh in her figure studies and fast-sketch art, and lovely in her landscapes and vintage barns—the latter most often plein air paintings, and often employing direct painting technique as well.

Susan has been praised for her clean line work, expressive pigment blends, and unique style. She and her dog can be seen at painting spots around the Hudson Valley, inspired by a view, often racing against the oncoming dusk.

Resident of New York City for many years and long-resident of Hudson Valley, NY, and frequent traveler for outdoor at-easel painting spots from New England to North Carolina's Albemarle region, Susan is often inspired by light and shapes during hikes along the Hudson River and local and upstate NYS Parks.

Aside from juried exhibits, Susan Lais Hostetler’s award-winning paintings and prints can be found at the historic waterfront Edenton NC gallery, Chowan Arts Council Gallery, in local restaurants and shops, and in private collections across the country, especially California, North Carolina, and New York.

Along with her signature membership in the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), and local plein air clubs, she is a contributing member of numerous art associations including the Edward Hopper Art House, the Community Arts Association (CAA), and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club (CLWAC in NYC), and the Northwest Watercolor Society, the San Diego Watercolor Society, and an associate artists member of the Audubon Artists and the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, and an artist member at Rockland Center for the Arts (RoCA) benefitting from enlightened Eleanor Grace Miller’s instruction and frequent artist participant of RoCA's life model studies.

Susan has taught beginner watercolor classes for adults and in recent years has held plein air painting sessions at her home as well as one-on-one lessons. She is also known for her dignified likeness-captures of pet portraits. See her website, (SusanLaisHostetler.com) for more on dog portraits, and for her published article on painting in public outside spaces during a pandemic, “My Private Art: Confessions of an Introverted Painter.” (Her art Instagram/ Facebook account can be found @SusanLaisHostetler)

Watercolor paints and pen and ink are the tools to which I’ve always gravitated. I discovered a dark lovely bottle of ink and a nib pen when I was young, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Watercolors I picked up because they went with ink it seemed to me. I’ve been carrying around little paint sets since I was a child, and although as an adult I know that watercolors are hard, fast, and difficult to control, I nearly always find them pleasing to work with, even if I think I’ve botched it. 

SUSAN LAIS HOSTETLER

Nanuet, NY    • 917-453-6959   • sjhlais@gmail.com   • Web: SusanLaisHostetler.com •   @SusanLaisHostetler ARTIST RESUME

Summary

An award-winning Hudson Valley artist, in numerous juried exhibits regionally, nationally, and internationally, as well as many member annual exhibits in local and national art societies. Primary medium: watercolor, and often pen & ink.

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Recent Artist Achievements includes:

• Accepted at the 123rd Annual Open Exhibition at the National Art Club on Gramercy Park, NYC, through the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, and was the recipient of their highest watercolor honor: the 2020 Edgar A. Whitney Memorial Prize.

• Accepted at the historic Salmagundi Art Club of New York City juried 2019 annual open painting exhibit, as well as exhibiting in 2020 with the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) in midtown Manhattan.

• Winner of two first prizes at the Wallisch Homestead Annual Art Show in New Jersey.

• Juried in as a life-long member to the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA).

• Master watercolorist Joseph Zbukvic juried Susan's painting "Comes the Day" for exhibit acceptance to San Diego Watercolor Society's 5th Annual Plein Air Exhibition 2021.

• Juried into the Summer TriAnnual Exhibition of the San Diego Watercolor Society (SDWS).

• Selected Juried Artist of the Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival 2022, partnered with the Wallkill River School.• Accepted into the Juried Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club’s Associates/ Members 2022 Satellite Show at the Ridgewood Art Institute, NJ.

• “Boscobel Poppies” painting won 3rd Place in watercolor in the 21^st Annual St Francis Festival of the Arts, in New Jersey, in the Spring of 2022.

• Won the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation Award for “Stormy Days” work exhibited at New York City’s (NYC) Tribeca gallery, One Art Space, in NAWA 2022.

• “Posing Bold” painting was seen at the HMVC Gallery of NYC’s online curated show Awake.

• “Black-Eyed Correspondents” 2022 national juried 80^th Annual Exhibition of the Audubon Artists.

• Won Finalist Award at the Art Show International Gallery 2023 (online) January Animal theme with dog portrait “I’m Good, You?” as well as a Finalist Award in the 5^th Figurative International Juried Art Competition 2023, and for Still Life with “Chaos Bottled” and “Pink Boscobel.”

• “Posing Bold” work was exhibited in the juried show at the Wallkill River Center for the Arts, Montgomery NY, Mixed Media/Collage Show, Spring 2023.

• Group Show of 2 painters and a photographer: Women’s Nature, the Gallery at Hudson’s Mills 2023. • Won Honorable Mention Award at the 2023 22^nd Festival of the Arts of St Francis of Assisi in New Jersey for “Adirondacks Alpha Tree.”

• Won a Community Art Association of NY/NJ (CAA) prize award at the 2023 Annual for her “Summer Light” painting.

• Solo show at Sidewalk Bistro Gallery Rooms in Piermont, “Her Nature: Connections.” NY Winter and Spring 2023.

• Honorable Mention for 2023 Teravarna International Juried Color Competition for “Nature Explosion: Zinnias.”

• Selected as a Juried Artist at the Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival competition week, October 2023, and part of the plein air exhibit at the Wallkill River Center for the Arts, Fall 2023.

• Selected for two-person painting show for the Autumn 2024 Show at Pomona Cultural Center

• The painting "Grace, golden nude" was juried into a Salmagundi September 2024 Exhibit in the main gallery room for the "Humans Twenty Four" Exhibit.

• Accepted work for the 127th Annual Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Open Juried Exhibition in New York City at the Salmagundi Art Club on Fifth Avenue.

Education and Influences
- Senior Management for a long career working with creatives in the field of Medical Education at Projects In Knowledge & At Point of Care, after earning Bachelor of Arts Degrees in both English and Journalism, while taking with art night classes and weekend watercolor workshops, and juried exhibiting and society memberships.

Although no formal art school degree, studied with top artists especially watercolor painter over 2 decades, including these recent studies:

• Accepted to a 3-day workshop taught by the Australian master artist Joseph Zbukvic at the San Diego Watercolor Society in 2022

• Artist workshop with New York City painter (and president of the American Watercolor Society), Antonio Masi 2022.

• Participated two annual Watercolor Live Global Art 3-Day Conference and also two the Annual Art Publishers Invitational: Paint the Adirondacks Week, 2022 and 2023.

In earlier years:

• Studied with painter & instructor Carolyn Pedersen, NWS, and with watercolorist Adrian Clive Holmes (Richmond/West Stockbridge Artists’ Guild)• Life model sessions at Art Students League, NYC, and drawing studies at 92Y Art Center, and countless workshops with talented instructors and painters through the years.

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