There is something about folk art that lifts our spirits and makes us happy. Perhaps it is the bright colours, the fine details or a bustling Victorian street. That is what Susan’s folk art paintings do, they make us happy. You will find skaters gliding in the moonlight, a horse-drawn sleigh passing silently through the night or villagers preparing for Christmas, visiting the shops or choosing the perfect Christmas tree. The paintings take us to a nostalgic world, urging us to step into the past to experience that early life, streets lined with quaint shops, century farms nestled in the hills and scenes of children hurrying down a country lane to their “little red brick schoolhouse”……….. this is the artist’s world!

    Susan grew up in Tottenham, Ontario and it was there, as a small child that she discovered painting when “Santa” left a set of paints under the tree. Her world opened up to creativity and she has been painting ever since. Acrylics are her medium of choice. As a self-taught artist she paints from local architecture, old photos and her memories. The Homecoming is of her family’s (the Urbanski homestead) near Schomberg and My Mother’s Store is her depiction of the store her mother ran on the main street of Tottenham in the early 1960s.

    Often you will see two small boys (her two sons) in her work and if you look closely you may even spot the family’s beloved white cat, Fluffy, tucked into a doorway or sitting on a fence.

    Susan lives with her husband in the hills north of Hockley where she paints from her studio.