Susan Verekar combines abstract elements with joyous landscapes
When COVID-19 shut down the world, some of us retreated into Netflix movies and glasses of chilled chardonnay. Susan Verekar, however, taught herself a new skill and launched a career.
An Oregon native, Verekar moved to East Tennessee with her husband about eight years ago. A music performance major who studied at the University of Colorado in Boulder, she had earned a master’s in business and was working as a litigation technology consultant before their move east. “It was really boring,” she admits. “I needed a creative outlet.”
Verekar was a new mom when COVID shut things down. “I had no idea what to do with myself.” And though she found a blank canvas intimidating, she says she rediscovered herself through learning to paint. “It was the outlet I’d always been looking for.”
She took online lessons, painted at her home studio, and eventually posted her work on Instagram. “It kinda blew up,” she says. “I started selling and got invited to participate in some exhibitions and art fairs.” Among them were shows in Miami and the Hamptons.
Her work currently follows two different paths. Some are landscapes in oil with abstract elements to them, and others are explosions of abstract color she does in alcohol-based inks. “The inks I do for fun. It’s a way of decompressing.” They’re both fun and popular, it seems; the canvases she took to a show in Manhattan last year sold out.
Her landscapes often depict the ocean and the sky. “It took me a long time to figure out what I’m drawn to and what it means,” she says. “I find the ocean and sky really emotive. I find that I want to capture moments of joy and beauty.” In one series of paintings, glorious paintings of sunsets over water are interrupted by long drips of paint. “We’re surrounded by opposites; our journey is to figure it out and to never stop moving forward.”
Her work can be found at Pivot Point Gallery in Knoxville and online at susanverekar.com.