Susan Ahearn

Biography

Susan Ahearn grew up in rural central New Jersey, mostly surrounded by farm fields. After college she moved to Massachusetts where her visual environment grew to include coastline, a rich source of inspiration for some of her abstract work. Whether working from the landscape or still life Susan will often begin a painting from direct observation. Used as a starting point, memory and impression are then combined to create a work that may loosely hint at reality, capturing a different sense of abstraction.

After years of painting slightly abstract still life, Susan desired to work larger and create abstract work that emphasize her love of shape, line and especially color. Her goal is always to say something beautiful with paint. Once a painting has begun it often goes through many changes which can be a time consuming process with oil paint. She fully embraces the risk taking that comes with creating abstracts. For all of her work she will stop at nothing to mix a particular desired color.

Susan received a BA from the College of New Jersey in 1986, and a Decorative Arts Certificate from the New England School of Design at Suffolk University in 2005. From 2011-2017 she alternately studied painting with Catherine Kehoe and Nancy McCarthy at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Additionally she has taken numerous workshops with master artists. Susan has won awards in both local and national shows, and participated in invitational group shows and has held solo shows.

Susan lives in Hingham, Massachusetts with her husband and their “luck of the draw” senior rescue dog Paxton, an amazing lovable little yorkie.