Huffington Post Review
Susan Sommer: Drawings and Paintings at Utica College
Susan Sommer, Fading Monarch (2012), oil on linen, 36 x 38 inches
The work of Susan Sommer fills the Edith Langley Barrett Fine Art Gallery with resonating color, curious textures and unique design. The compositions she creates suggest a multi-level analysis of her natural surroundings that weaves back and forth between representation and abstraction, yet all the work holds together as one continuous and evolving thesis.
The layout of the exhibition is positioned in such a fashion that visitors can move from sub series to sub series in a similar way one experiences the rich, thought-provoking chapters of a classic novel. This allows us to see how Sommer works, recording her observations, feelings and sensations with each and every brush stroke. You can liken her to the monarchs she sometimes sees in the bushes near her country home as they pass through on their long journey from Canada to Mexico and back again. And like the monarchs, Sommer has her own flight pattern of building her energies and interests from the details that initially draw her attention, to then moving outward for the overall view blending the two together in a dazzling dance of colors, textures and tones. This is no more apparent then when she represents those very same butterflies in her paintings, where the overlapping technique of blending detail with the ambient setting builds a lush painterly surface that speaks of the very best aspects of nature’s life cycle.