Sue Fontaine

Artist Statement

My work explores the places where nature and human life meet landscapes where architecture, vegetation, and the traces of everyday life come together. I am drawn to moments of light, shadow, texture, and quiet transformation, inviting viewers to pause and reconsider the familiar.

I am particularly interested in overlooked and abandoned landscapes: narrow streets worn by time, familiar landmarks, urban spaces, and places where nature begins to reclaim what has been built. These locations hold stories of belonging, memory, change, and the passage of time. Landscape, for me, is never simply scenery; it is a reflection of our relationship to place and to one another.

Working primarily in acrylic, graphite, and paper on canvas, I build my paintings through layers of color and texture. In my earlier work, I incorporated fabric to create raised relief within the image. Over time, this developed into more subtle layers of paper and graphite drawing. These materials become part of the landscape itself, creating ridges, valleys, and traces that shift as light moves across the surface.

Botanical elements, including roots, blooms, branches, and weeds, recur throughout my work. They serve not only as subjects but also as metaphors for connection, resilience, belonging, and what sustains us. By bringing together the cultivated and the wild, the personal and the shared, I hope to encourage a renewed appreciation for the beauty and meaning found in the places we inhabit, yet so often overlook.

www.suefontaine.com | Instagram: @mill.painter

Biography

Sue Fontaine is a Western Massachusetts-based artist whose paintings explore the relationship between nature, architecture, and human presence. Working in acrylic, graphite, and paper on canvas, she creates layered, tactile works that combine botanical imagery with urban and rural landscapes.

Fontaine earned an AA from Holyoke Community College in 1994 and a BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1998, graduating summa cum laude as a Commonwealth Scholar. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout New England and beyond, including at Paradise City Arts Festivals, the Gracie Square Art Show in New York City, the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show in Philadelphia, the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, and the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival.

Her work has been featured in the Greenfield Recorder, Daily Hampshire Gazette, and MassLive. Her honors include Artistic Excellence from her senior exhibition at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, an Achievement in Art Award from Holyoke Community College, and awards at juried art festivals including the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, Arts at the Gardens, and the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair.

Her work is held in the corporate collection of UMass Memorial Health and is represented by The Gutman Gallery in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Viridian Artists Gallery in New York.

Fontaine currently lives and works in Western Massachusetts, where the surrounding landscape continues to provide an important source of inspiration for her artistic practice.