Surrounded in her home by the Native American Indian artifacts that she collects and paints, Sue Krzyston believes that these objects represent the "soul" of the people who create them. "I strive to capture that feeling on canvas by using the nuance and essence of an object and utilize the effects of light and shadow to depict the beautiful and varied textures of each item that I select for my compositions. Light is so important in making the artifacts relate to each other. I try to make the inanimate objects come alive in the  glowing warmth of the light."

 

Since Sue lives in Arizona and often goes to Santa Fe, she is always on the hunt for interesting new pottery, baskets and artifacts that "speak" to her to incorporate in her paintings. "I am always inspired by the artisans whose work I collect and feel that my paintings are an 'art form within art'."

 

Krzyston's many collectors comment on the three dimensional realism that she achieves in each painting. They say that they feel like they could pick up a piece of the glowing pottery, feel the texture of a rug or pluck a bead off a intricately painted moccasin.

 

Since she is a self-taught artist, Krzyston has developed her own painting techniques. "I admire the Dutch masters paintings. I use the rich dark backgrounds that they used to accentuate the light-filled foreground." She uses many thin glazes of paint to achieve the rich glow of an object, and builds paint in many layers in the highly realistic beads that she paints on the moccasins so that they actually appear to be real beads.

 

Sue is also known for her traditional still-life paintings featuring cobalt vases, lace, copper, porcelain and fruit. She was honored to have been commissioned by a fruit and vegetable importer to do paintings of a variety of their products with an Arizona themed composition for the Washington DC offices of the Arizona Senators and Congressmen. "It was such a thrill to work with the organization and to be flown to Washington to help in presenting the paintings and to see where they would be displayed." 

 

In addition to having her oil paintings in many collections and shows, her work has been juried for 12 years into the well known, "top 50 female Western artists" Cowgirl Up! show at the Desert Caballeros Western Art Museum in Wickenburg, AZ. She also has been invited many times into the well known Settlers West Miniature Show in Tucson, AZ. Krzyston was honored to have been invited to become an Honorary Artist Member of the prestigious Mountain Oyster Club  of Western art collectors in Tucson and was inducted in November, 2018 at the 49th annual show.

 

Sue Krzyston's painting "Handed Down Traditions" won a Merit Award in the National Oil and Acrylic Painters' Society (NOAPS) Spring 2021 Online International Exhibit and her oil "Distant Drums" was juried into the American Women Artist (AWA) "Lifting the Sky: Elevating the Works of American Women Artists."  Most recently, her 24 x 20 oil painting "From Long Ago" has been juried into the exhibition American Women Artists: Expanding Horizons Juried Museum Show at the Loveland Museum in Colorado from September 14 – November 10, 2024. 

​

EXHIBITIONS

      2024 American Women Artists Juried Show, Expanding Horizons. Loveland Museum, CO, September

      2023 Special Feature:  New Work by Sue Krzyston, Mountain Trails Gallery Sedona, November

      2021 National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS) Best of America Exhibition, Dana Gallery, Missoula, Montana

      2021  NOAPS Spring Online International Exhibit

      2021  American Women Artists Lifting the Sky; Elevating the Work of American Women Artists

      2020  NOAPS 2020  Fall Online Exhibit

      2007-2019   Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ Cowgirl Up! Art From the Other Half of the West

      1995-2020  Settlers West, American Miniatures, Tucson, AZ

      2007-2021  Mountain Oyster Club, Annual Mountain Oyster Club Contemporary Western Art Show, Tucson, AZ

      2013-2014  Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale Salon of Fine Art

            

HONORS

      2024  Western Art and Architecture Award at the American Women Artists: Expanding Horizons   Juried Exhibition at the Loveland Museum, CO

      2021  Merit Award  NOAPS Spring 2021 Online International Exhibit

      2019  Installed as Honorary Artist Member of the prestigious Mountain Oyster Club, Tucson AZ

      2019  Guest Lecturer: Mountain Oyster Club, Friends of Western Art, Tucson, AZ

      2019  Guest Lecturer: Tucson Museum of Art , Western Art Patrons, Tucson, AZ

      2016  Commissioned to do paintings for the Arizona Senators and Congressmen for their         Washington DC offices.

 

Publications

      2020  Images Arizona Magazine, (Dec. 29, 2021) Feature article Sue Krzyston: Art and Artifacts

      2015 Sedona Monthly Magazine (May issue) Feature article

      2011 Western Art Collector Magazine (Aug. issue) Feature article

      2007 Western Art Collector Magazine (premier issue) Feature article

      various newspaper and magazine articles

​