Painting with Sue

I have many fond memories of painting with Sue in various venues around Georgia, in the North Carolina mountains where she had a home, in Richmond, VA; Huntington, AL; Savannah, Charleston, and in Maine. We were part of a group of plein air painters from Georgia who were dedicated to painting on location and who eventually founded PAPSE, the Plein Air Painters of the Southeast, an organization which continues today and has blossomed into a group of some of the strongest painters in the country. Sue was always open to an adventure and she was generous with her home in the mountains. The first time I painted with her there she took me to an amazing waterfall on her property where I sat happily painting the scene and was stunned to finally notice that I sat close to a snake, sunning itself on the rocks. It was a shocking introduction for a Minnesotan to the wildlife of the south and the particular challenges of painting outside. We painted on hot days on Georgia and South Carolina beaches, on the busy streets of southern cities, in the mountains in the fall, and one January on Tybee Island during a record-breaking cold snap. Our rental cottage had no heat but we stuck it out for a few days until our double and triple sweaters failed to keep us warm. I spend summers in Maine and Sue joined me at least twice, once at my home in the western lakes and mountains where she left me a charming plein air painting of our cottage. On another occasion she joined me and three artist friends on the coast of Maine. My group of artists were pretty casual about how we spent our days, having painted together for twenty years or more. Sue got us all up at dawn one morning so we could paint the early morning light on the docks in Stonington. She was a fine painter, a generous hostess, and a good friend. I treasure the plein air painting she did of our cottage in Maine for it is a constant reminder of the many adventures we shared in the south and in Maine painting en plein air. Gwen Nagel