Janice Sugg

"Throughout my life I have been fascinated by paintings and how the world is represented through the eyes of others. My love of nature inspires me to mix whimsical subjects like birds and bison into my paintings. I experiment with the horizons, austere prairie grasses bonded with a shifting sky, river beds winding into the distance, and thin lines revealing an intricate variety of rich layers. Having moved to Colorado as a young girl, I've gained an appreciation of the broad expanses and the endless variety of horizons which has ultimately inspired me to create a vision that is unique and distinctly my own."

One has to study a painting by Janice Sugg at varying distances to truly appreciate the incredible artistry. From afar you are struck by a beautiful image; it is only upon close inspection that the intricacy of texturing, wiping, blending and refining is revealed.


She works with a palette knife, a metallic tool with a wooden handle, not unlike a refined builder's trowel and, along with oils, she mixes “buttery” lumps of color straight from the tube to her palette and then to the canvas. It takes a skilled and talented artist to use a palette knife and Janice is a master of this technique. She uses the knife to create dynamic, textured strokes and subtle highlights not achievable with a brush. The beauty of this tool allows her total control of stroke, color and textures which in turn bring her originals to life.

Janice is a full time career level oil painter, primarily self-taught, and an artist with a unique eye for color. She started her career as a potter at the age of 23. She later became a full time oil painter on canvas later in her life. Janice expresses her creativity in a free and dynamic way with palette knives, bushes and oils sticks that she uses to draw on the canvas to create textures and layers. In her oil paintings, the concept of the horizon portrays a powerful sense of earth blending with sky. She interweaves textures, blending color and subjective atmosphere into her imagery. She paints using unpredictable palettes—a spectrum of color that often challenges well worn cliches (the sky is blue, the land is green…). The resulting layers are successfully wiped and refined revealing a composite of underlying design–the result of colorful swatches of braided paint unfolding and enfolding the values within her palette.

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Selected Exhibitions & Awards
Best Of Show, Art Exhibit, Starline, Gallery, Harvard, IL, 2014
Honorable Mention, Art Exhibit, The Starline Gallery, Harvard, IL, 2014
Special Recognition, Light, Space, Time, Abstract Exhibition, On-Line, International Exhibit, 2014