Susan Chambers

My garden is my connection to nature, an ever changing art installation, open-air studio, and the focus of my paintings. It is an humble, southern backyard garden resembling a “crazy quilt” of color and pattern.My major aesthetic concerns are color, space, pattern and composition. Saturated, contrasting hues are used to enliven and flatten the abstract space. The shallow space is full of patterned plants and hard edged, flat shapes stacked on an up-tilted plane. The iconic oval shapes of birdbaths, tomato cages, straw hats often repeat. The surface composition is a larger overall pattern. Matte acrylic is applied flatly to emphasize these formal concerns.

To garden is to hope. I combat climate change by planting natives that attract birds and pollinators, animating the garden and pictorial space. My work is an invitation to the viewer to explore the ever changing space of the garden and reconnect with nature.