Artist Profile

Susan Goetz Zwirn

Novato, CA

To capture the essential qualities of landscape takes me on unpredictable and challenging journeys. Ranging from recognizable vistas of water and land formations to abstracted evocations of space, my palette is strongly influenced by seasonal change, light and internal perspectives fostered by emotion. To me, painting is a means to grasp the dynamic present. I try to see the underlying structure beneath the surface beauty and chaos of nature.
My paintings begin with sketching. I seek places where I can look up, or down hills and invite the viewer along with me, or conflate many perspectives or angles on one surface. ‘On Arrival’ is based on views from an airplane. ‘Insolation’ combines looking down and out at summer images, with suggestions of boats and swimming pools. ‘Event Horizon' imagines astronomical concepts in color from a great distance.
Painting suspends my sense of time. Paintings on canvas can take years to complete; paintings on paper take hours at the most. It has been a drive and pleasure to devote time to looking, sharing, teaching, and creating. Reviews available on request.
Helen Harrison, New York Times:
“Susan Goetz Zwirn’s Landscape Boundaries, shows how abstraction can push a familiar scene to the limits of recognizability. Using unnaturally intense colors and faceted forms, the painter reinterprets a tranquil harbor in imaginative terms."
Eric Ernst, East Hampton Star:
"Susan Goetz Zwirn’s painting ‘Winter’ offers a cascading cacophony of blues that are both random and ordered. There is a structure of chance evolution, as it were, that in its entirety is both quiet and evocative. The sense of cold is both palpable and powerful.”
Robert Carriola, Professional Newsletter
“Best in Show’ award for ‘Main Street.’ The award winners were chosen based on the considerations for wholesome aesthetic order, command of tools and materials and transformation of matter into a new reality of illusion. The Best in Show Oil Painting embraces excellent composition in contemporary design shapes. Integrated high key colors with subordinate repeats for cohesion, and a particularly interesting space movement which fluctuates between a 2-D and 3-D illusion, the technique and concept is noteworthy.”

I received a master’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and a doctoral degree from Columbia University. I studied painting with Dean Richardson, Connie Fox and Paul Wood. Recently retired from my position as Director and Professor of Art Education at Hofstra University in NY, I have also taught courses at Cornell, Adelphi, and St John’s universities and at CW Post and Molloy colleges. I have received numerous awards for paintings, which have been exhibited and collected locally as well as internationally in juried exhibitions, museums and galleries. I recently moved from NY to CA and am thrilled to have a studio at the Novato Arts Center in MOCA.
ART AWARDS
Hecksher Museum
Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Winners Show,
Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, First Prize
Hecksher Museum
Manhasset Art Association, C.W. Post College, NY, First Prize
Manhasset Art Association, North Shore Unitarian Church
Aesthetics ’90, National Exhibit, Kansas, Second Prize
Hutchins Gallery, C.W. Post College, NY, Best in Show
Manhasset Art Association, Great Neck House, First Prize
Manhasset Art Association, C.W. Post College
Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA Honorable Mention
Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA. Second Prize