In art and in life, Susan Cowan has distinctive style

By Matt Nagle

Tacoma Weekly
mattnagle@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: November 27, 2008

What painter Susan Cowan can do with a plain sheet of white paper is nothing short of amazing. Possessing a master’s touch with acrylics and watercolors, she is one of those artists whose work begs the question, “How did she do that?” and she is happy to tell you. An art teacher for more than 20 years, Cowan brings together seasoned pros and excited newbies in aqueous media classes she teaches through Clark College in Vancouver, Wash., where she shares the considerable knowledge she has gained not through getting a formal degree from an art school, but rather by living life and staying true to her own authentic voice.

Born and raised in Tacoma, Cowan returned to her hometown about five years ago from Portland, where she exhibited her art at numerous venues including the Portland Art Museum. She said she is glad to be back in Tacoma, where her childhood memories reach back to when she was a little girl attending St. Leo’s Catholic School up through 12th grade. “I loved it,” she said of St. Leo’s and the whole Catholic experience. “It’s definitely influenced my art.” When she and her husband divorced, for example, Cowan created a whole series of religious-themed paintings to work through those trying times. She started laughing when she said she painted “lots of crucifixion-type things, I’m sure reflecting what I was going through.” From there she moved on to painting themes with more mystic elements of spirituality as seen in her fabulous renditions of the Virgin of Guadalupe and her Day of the Dead works.

Since moving back to Tacoma, Cowan has hooked up with the active Tacoma arts scene both professionally and personally, finding many like-minded friends among our city’s wealth of talented artists. “There’s just this kind of raw energy in Tacoma that I’m really excited about,” she said.

At Two Vaults Gallery in Tacoma (602 Fawcett Ave.), Cowan’s Day of the Dead paintings and other of her fanciful works grace the walls with lots of sensational art by some of our area’s most accomplished artists. She paints other subject matter too, like flowers, animals, and even planets, all of which she imagines in creative settings that emote an enchanting, childlike quality through colors pleasing to the eye.

Cowan has a real talent for painting in layers of colors such that a dreamy scene unfolds from her mind and onto the paper that invite the viewer in with gentle, imaginative characters and environments. As she sketches her compositions onto paper, Cowan said she keeps what she wishes to communicate foremost in her mind. “To me, the most important part is what are you going to say?”

One of her signature techniques that viewers often notice is how the artist accentuates details in her paintings by placing dots of pigment in circular patterns or outlining certain areas of paint to bring them out and add texture. It is harder than it looks and adds a lovely, finished touch.

“The Three Katrinas,” one of Cowan’s Day of the Dead-themed works, is a study in what a deft hand can do with a paintbrush and water-based pigments. The flowing, sheer gowns she painted on the dressed-up skeletal ladies was done with such finesse that the breezy garments look barely there.

A traveler both in the real world and on a spiritual plain, Cowan partnered with fellow artist and teacher Lee Boughman to develop a program whereby artists can sign up for group trips to far away places to paint and enjoy each others company. So far they have gone on cruises to Alaska, Mexico, Hawaii and Italy. Now they are planning an excursion to France that is already sold out.

“I try to stay open wherever I am, so if I’m traveling I’m receptive to what might want to come out painting-wise,” she said.

Her son, Nicholas Pittman, lives in Portland and is an up-and-coming artist himself. Artistic tendencies run in her family, Cowan said. When she was growing up, her dad owned a paint store on Pacific Avenue for many years. “I grew up around color chips and paint cans,” she said. “I think that if Dad hadn’t had to earn a living and if he hadn’t loved golf so much he would’ve been a very fine painter.”

She said seeing her son Nicholas working to make it as a young painter reminds her of her own experiences at his age. However, mom took the road less traveled, eschewing the networking and connections like her son is making through school in favor of striking out on her own. She chose the experimental Evergreen State College over art school, enrolling the first year the university opened.

“I really felt like all I needed to be an artist was life experience and pick up the skills I needed as I needed them,” she recalled, noting that it was a good choice for her. Over the years she took classes from master painters in watercolor and honed her technical skills by simply painting a lot and often. “I kind of did it piecemeal, but it worked.”

She got into teaching at Clark College in the late 1980s when a colleague left a teaching position, and she has enjoyed the financial stability the job offers along with the learning opportunities among fellow artists. “I had never taught a day in my life but I found that I love teaching. It turned out to be a really good niche for me.”

She and Baughman recently finished shooting an instructional DVD, inspired from a trip to Moab, Utah. Keep an eye out for this at their website, where you can also check out both artists’ works, at www.art-adventures.com. Also visit www.twovaults.com, Cowan’s local gallery representative.

In art and in life, Susan Cowan has distinctive style

By Matt Nagle

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