Artist Focus: Sue Krzyston

Soon after Sue Krzyston moved to Arizona in 1971, she began collecting Native American pottery. When she purchased her first small Santa Clara black pot, little did she know that this would influence her life and career. As her collection of artifacts grew, she also began to paint as a hobby. At the suggestion of her husband, Mike, her focus turned to using her collection as the subject of her compositions. “I consider my paintings an art form within an art form,” she says. “I so admire the beauty and artistry that these talented potters’ and weavers’ hands have created.”

Touches of Age, oil, 30 x 15”

Her goal in her highly detailed compositions is to show how using light and shadow will make the objects relate to each other and to the viewer. Krzyston’s use of light also allows objects in her paintings to come alive and gives them a three-dimensional effect.

“Since I have had no formal art education and am basically self-taught, I have, by trial and error, developed my own techniques,” she adds. Krzyston uses many layers and applies glazes to enhance the depth and glow of each piece. Every bead on a moccasin is actually five to six layers of oil paint which she carefully paints freehand.

A Defining Beauty, oil, 24 x 30”

Krzyston thinks the most rewarding aspect of painting is to have someone relate to what she is trying to capture on canvas. Recently one of her collectors commented, “Your ability to bring artifacts to life in two-dimensional art is phenomenal. The creation of textures and capturing light and shadow at the tip of your paintbrush is a gift that always delights the eyes of the beholder.”