Ships:
For the last seven years I have been mesmerized by the ships I see from my studio window at Pier 70 in San Francisco. The particular light and weather conditions of the San Francisco Bay create an ever-changing scene, shrouding and illuminating the ships and water in ways that continue to fascinate me. Sometimes ghostly and glimmering, sometimes glowing in the full glory of sunlight, the ships are like large still lives on a liquid surface, sublime, mysterious, and full of longing.

Industrial yet romantic, large cargo ships seen from far away are imbued with poetry. While the shipping industry carries ominous associations surrounding environmental disaster, pollution, and the global economy, the ships themselves are symbols of freedom and new horizons. To me, they are formidable, proud and beautiful, and they keep appearing and disappearing in new ways that stretch my way of seeing, challenging me to capture the moment, before they glide away.

Still life and landscape:
Sunlight transforms the chaos of the kitchen counter, and shadows make their own pools of mystery. Walking down a familiar path, the greens in the distance glimmer brightly, as if offering a promise. My everyday world is waiting to be noticed and savored.

 

Suzy Barnard was born in England in 1958, earned her BFA (Painting) in 1980 from Bristol Polytechnic (now called the University of the West of England), and moved to the Bay Area in 1981. She graduated from the MFA Painting program at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984. Still in the Bay Area, Suzy lives in the Berkeley with her husband and two children, and paints from her studio in the Noonan Building at Pier 70 in San Francisco.