Susan Faust has had a lifetime love affair with making art. She has spent more than 40 years as a professional artist working in several different mediums. Susan graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1973 with a BA in Fine Art. Upon graduation, she pursued a career as a professional ceramicist and production potter. Within two years she was Artist in Residence for the State of West Virginia and for the next 10 years, she was widely recognized as one of the most successful production Master Potters in the Southeast. But, thousands of pots later and hundreds of craft shows behind her, her real passion for drawing and painting were going unfulfilled. Susan moved to Sedona, Arizona in 1987 and became the director of the ceramics department at the Sedona Art Center while continuing to study painting with some of the most accomplished teachers in the country. Susan went on to become a successful pastelist and oil painter and was soon teaching workshops and classes while participating in exhibitions around the country.
Another move in 2000 sent Susan to the Pacific Northwest to studio the watery, green landscape of the region. Painting on location for many years she traveled and participated in Plein Air paintouts across the country. But, in 2009 the Southwest drew her back. Now living in the light and beauty of the high desert of Santa Fe, NM Susan continues to explore a very personal artistic expression in oil and mixed media, inspired by the beauty and grandeur of the southwest.
Susan is the recipient of numerous awards in American and International exhibitions and is a featured plein air pastel artist in the PBS television series, "The Artist's Workshop". Her work hangs in numerous private and corporate collections. She has had numerous solo shows. She was a featured artist in the June, 2000 issue of Pastel Artist International Magazine. She has taught classes and workshops throughout the country and in Europe and has taught as an invited international instructor in Australia. She was a juror for the International Art Prize from 2015- 2017. She is a member of Oil Painters of America, The Pastel Society of America ,The Northwest Pastel Society, the Taos Abstract Artists Collective and The National Museum of Women in the Arts. She is represented by Hat Ranch Gallery in Santa Fe and Howard Mandville Gallery in Woodinville WA.
