Suzy has experienced first-hand the Healing Power of Art and believes herself greatly blessed to be able to share her paintings and collage pieces with others.Once she began painting full time, she studied intensively with noted artist Michael Del Priore and has also received instruction from Michael Story, Susan Mayfield Hunnicutt, Robert H Way, and Michel McNinch. She paints in watercolors, oils, acrylics, pastels, and hand paints the papers she uses in her collages. She has been commissioned to paint pet portraits from Charleston, SC to Old Town Alexandria, VA. She has also been commissioned to paint portraits and landscapes in oil and pastel throughout the state of SC.
Her work has been exhibited in Columbia, SC Hilton Head, SC, Landrum, SC, and Charleston, SC. She was recently awarded the 2010 Purchase Award at the First Federal 2010 People’s Choice Art Exhibit. Suzy and her work has been featured in the August 2007 Lake Murray – Columbia ™ Magazine, the State Newspaper on June 1 & 2, 2008, the LA Times in July 2008, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and GuidePosts™ magazine. She is a member of Trenholm Artists Guild, an Exhibiting Member of Charleston Artists Guild, and a member of the Portrait Society of America. Her work can be seen at Courtyard Art Gallery in Charleston, SC located at 149 ½ East Bay Street. Additionally, she has works on display in the historic Arcade Mall located at 1332 Main Street in downtown Columbia, SC. Suzy has also been an Artist-In- Residence at the SC School for the Deaf and the Blind in September 2010.
In 2006 she began painting her Iraq Series from which she makes gicleé prints on watercolor paper. All net proceeds from the sale of these prints benefit Fisher House Foundation, Inc. in loving memory of her first born son SGT A Joseph Derrick, who lost his life serving our country September 23, 2005 in Baghdad, Iraq. On November 2, 2008, Suzy presented President George W Bush two of her Iraq Series gicleé prints which will hang in the George W Bush Presidential Library upon completion. There is also one of her gicleé prints hanging in the entryway of the Department of Family Medicine of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. She was commissioned to paint a portrait of SPC Thomas D Caughman by the 81st Army Reserve, which hangs in the lobby of their facility at Ft. Jackson, Columbia, SC and was honored to present General George Casey with a set of her Iraq Series gicleé prints.
While seeking to transition to the Charleston - Mt. Pleasant area, Suzy currently resides in Columbia, SC with her husband Carey of 28 years, her toy poodle Gracie and her standard poodle pup Lily. She is blessed with three adult children and a daughter–in–law: William and his wife Nicole who are expecting Suzy's first grandchild in December, Elizabeth, and Joseph who looks down on them all from Heaven
For more information, contact Suzy at suzy@suzyshealy.com.