Beside Going To The Sun Road Analysis

Title: Beside Going to the Sun Road

Artist: Sue Britt

Year: 2015

Medium: Paper Tapestry

Location: Spanish Village Art Center. San Diego, CA.

First Impression

My first impression of Sue Britt’s “Beside Going to the Sun Road” was that it was beautiful and rich with color. Many of the shapes are abstract, yet there was so much detail in the piece that I felt as if I was at Glacier National Park. The colors and textures of the paper that she used were beautiful and composed with detail. The craftsmanship of Sue Britt’s artwork is remarkable. The artwork reminded me of my family’s property in Utah. The trees, the flowing water, and the rocks took me back to my “happy place”. By observing Sue Britt’s artwork, I can tell that we share a love for

Britt feels that water is based on feelings, and she tends to look at the water a lot when she hikes.

• Britt was inspired by the way that the rocks changed color where the water hit the pink and purple rocks at Glacier National Park. The rocks would change to a red color.

• Britt feels that nature has a lot hidden below the surface. That fact holds something dear to her.

II. How her background in art influenced her

• A painter named Emily Carr has inspired Sue Britt. She did the majority of her paintings in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Carr inspires Britt because they share similar feelings about nature and how nature is depicted in their artwork.

• Sue Britt Studied in China, where she studied Chinese traditional gardens. The traditional gardens had a large impact on her COMPOSITION in her artwork. A lot of her work has hidden views, which she traces back to her residency in China.

• Britt loves hiking, and she completed an art residency in the Grand Canyon.

• Britt tries to capture the form, light, and feelings of a certain place instead of photographing it.

• The majority of Britt’s artwork is tied to

• All of the Artists within the Art Center collectively choose a word each month to guide their newest artwork. October’s word is “erase”. However, Britt feels she does not “erase,” instead she says she “builds.”

• Britt’s artwork is started with flat pieces, and with those pieces she layers and weaves them to create more SHADOW and TEXTURE within her artwork.

• Britt uses ABSTRACT TEXTURE in the way she illustrates the river as flowing.

• Britt’s weaving and layering of her paper creates a THREE-DIMENSIONAL medium.

• Britt’s TECHNIQUE is to cut pieces out of substrate paper or two ply illustration boards, and she glues paper around it, wrapping the paper around the back side. It is then layered and weaved. She says that it “feels like carving to me.”

• The paper that Britt uses is made in as far away as Nepal, Tibet, and Thailand.

• Britt occasionally does a color study with markers and sometimes just pulls a color pallet. She likes to be comfortable with the color pallet before she starts. She likes HIGH CONTRAST in her pieces.

• Britt feels that if she skips the color pallet process she finds the need to switch a whole sky or background, which can be very