My Background
Susan Herbst is an award-winning artist who attended School of Visual Arts for children’s illustration. She is currently a graphic designer and illustrator, in addition to being a fine artist with an emphasis on landscapes and still life. She also paints commisions of homes and pets.
Throughout her life she has drawn, painted and kept a sketchbook, but in 2005, she rediscovered the joy of
simply painting the world around her. Her favorite mediums are watercolor, gouache, colored pencil and pastels. She enjoys plein air painting and urban sketching and has also explored printmaking and mixed media. Workshops with Mel Stabin, Susan Abbott, Ted Nuttall, Joyce Hicks, Cynthia Knox, Karen Margulis, Lana Ballot, and Stephanie Navon-Jacobson (among others) have helped her see, paint, compose and edit her work.
Susan has been the creator of the mermaid posters for the annual Great South Bay Music Festival since 2007. In 2020 she illustrated the children’s book, Everyday is Funday with Grandma Stella, by Linda Ganzenmuller, Psy.D.
My Medium
I'm primarily a watercolorist, but I also use pastels, gouache, colored pencils and occasionally venture in to printmaking. I love to bring my sketchbook on hikes, vacations, and to the beach.
My Inspiration
I am always fascinated and inspired by the endless artistic possibilities the world offers us - from the natural to the man-made. The colors of an autumn forest, the vastness of the sky and sea, the beauty in how light changes falls on a suburban street or at the shore.
I try to capture those moments in my sketchbook and in my paintings and convey what I felt when I saw them.