Susan has been involved in art throughout her life, whether drawing, painting, working in clay, or teaching and counseling through art. Her formal training includes a dual Bachelor’s degree in fine arts and psychology with art therapy concentration and Master’s degree in education, and continued studies in landscape painting, illustration, and design. She is inspired by nature, particularly the colors and shapes in the landscape and the emotional response to the environment. Therefore, she often paints en plein air, striving to portray the “feel of the day”, sifting through the layers of natural color and the play of light. Susan enjoys and sees benefit in engaging in a variety of media, but has mainly been working in oil. In the studio, she frequently uses plein air pen/ink/watercolor or colored pencil sketches to create larger oil paintings.

Her studio work also includes still life/painting from life, figurative, and limited iconography. Susan has studied landscape painting abroad, including Italy and Ireland, and painted across the USA, gaining inspiration from her travels. She has exhibited in Pennsylvania, New York City, and the US east coast in many juried shows and has won awards regionally, including several recent Best of Show awards, awards for Plein air/Impressionism and for her works in clay. She recently added book illustration to her art endeavors, for the children’s book, “Goodbye Yellow House.” She currently teaches oil painting at the Art Association and is involved periodically in children’s art programming. Her work is in private and corporate collections. She is a member of the Susquehanna Valley Plein Air Painters, Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters, American Impressionist Society, and local art associations. Through her work, she hopes to share a blend of appreciation for the natural world and the wonder of the human spirit.

To find out more information about the artist you can visit her website at sbenignilandis.com.

Artist: Susan Benigni-Landis
Medium: Oil & Oil Pastels
Dimensions: 28 1/2" x 53" framed