Susan Steckler

I came to painting in a roundabout way—through mountains, trails, and a life expressing creativity in other forms as I lived across three countries. As a self-taught artist who picked up a palette knife later in life, my time exploring the world and other experimenting with other creative forms was actually the perfect preparation.

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Raised in the Pacific Northwest, I grew up with a deep love for wild places. The blues and greens of the Cascades and Puget Sound are wired into me; they show up on my canvases whether I intend them to or not.

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My husband’s career took us abroad, starting in Zurich, where I fell in love with trail running, stopping mid-stride to photograph wildflowers and landscapes I couldn’t bear to leave behind—a habit I still keep (and a convenient excuse to catch my breath).

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Paris came next, and while earning my master’s degree, my art education happened on foot, wandering into galleries and spending afternoons walking the sidewalks visiting museums from the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Musée D'Orsay to tiny galleries and exhibitions throughout the city. For the first time, I saw paint applied with a volume and intensity I didn’t know was possible. I became infatuated with the physical presence of the medium—the knife marks, the ridges, the weight of the color.

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When we moved to Boulder, Colorado, everything clicked. The extraordinary high-country trails, a welcoming arts community, and a job layoff gave me the time I needed to explore the canvas. I’m obsessed and can easily lose a full day to the process of mixing colors and laying them along a panel.