Susan Sternau is a landscape painter living and working in Southern California. She grew up in New York City, and graduated from Barnard College in 1980. She went on to earn an M.A. in Art History from Hunter College while becoming increasingly focused on painting. She lived in Philadelphia before moving to San Francisco in 1995 and to Sausalito in 2001. In 2020 she moved to the Coachella Valley where she maintains a painting studio and is drawing fresh inspiration from desert and mountain landscapes.

Susan paints with both oils and watercolors. In her oils she strives to create a strong sense of place and to communicate her response to the beauty of California’s landscapes and wildlife, achieving an impressionistic blend of color and lively surface texture. Her watercolors feature local landscapes, flowers, still life, and travel scenes. She was represented by the Heartful Art Gallery and her work is currently represented by Studio 333 in Sausalito.

While exhibiting in New York, Philadelphia, Florida, and the San Francisco Bay Area, Susan has also done numerous commissions and her work is in many private collections. She is the author of four popular books on art and architecture: Art Nouveau: Spirit of the Belle Époque, Art Deco: Flights of Artistic Fancy, Henri Matisse, and Museums: Masterpieces of Architecture. Her newest book is Easter Island Sketchbook: An Artist’s Journey to the Mysterious Land of Giant Stone Statues is illustrated with over 65 watercolor and ink painting (Sausalito Press, 2014).

Some of Susan’s other published illustrations appear in Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Family Collection, Irish Lore and Legends, and The Bells of Peroquia, a book of poetry by David Mazer.

You can also find out more about Susan Sternau Studios on Facebook.

Susan has taught art for over 17 years; her most famous students were Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

 

Susan Sternau with Warren Buffett after one lesson