Susan was born in Rhode Island and moved to San Diego as a youngster.
She began painting early in life and by her teens was being commissioned
to paint animal portraits. At the age of 18, she started her studies
of dressage and during the next 15 years became a professional trainer
of horses and riders. She trained and judged dressage throughout the
western United States .
During this time she continued to paint and one of those paintings, a
Lipizzan Stallion, was responsible for an invitation to visit the Spanish Riding School in Vienna , Austria as a guest artist. After this
period in her life, Susan transitioned back into being a full time artist
specializing in equine portraits.
She spent three years studying Oriental Brush painting and made this her
medium of choice. Then life changed a bit when a 50-year-old desert
tortoise wandered into her backyard. Her love of animals took over as she
nurtured this tortoise, soon to be named Bok Choy Boy, back to health. This
tortoise became an inspiration for new paintings and in 1994; she and her
husband launched a mail order company, Lightrein Productions, which offered
turtle and tortoise fine art prints and note cards
Further studies took Susan to her preferred medium of watercolor and new
paintings came alive with color. In 2001, her painting "Too Close For
Comfort", a watercolor of an ornate Nile monitor lizard, won an award
in the prestigious San Diego Watercolor Society International Show. The
award placed her in the top 3% of the 642 artists from around the world. She also received many other awards for
her artwork until she stopped entering art shows to focus exclusively on
the turtle and tortoise images for her business.
She and her husband expanded their mail order business by launching
TurtleFineArt.com, with many new watercolor images of turtles and tortoises.
A portion of the proceeds from her company
are now being used to help several Turtle and Tortoise Societies and Clubs
in their efforts to protect these special animals.
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