American artist Susan McDonnell is a realist painter who paints her encounters of wildlife, and tells stories of nature through her paintings. She received 2nd prize in the INPRNT Traditional Art Category of the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Award for her ‘Desert Guardians’ oil painting. While her work is clearly inspired by nature and animals, they are not simple studies of the animals she encounters.

Each piece Susan McDonnell has created includes a strong sense of storytelling. 

With the country battered by the pandemic, a hotly contested election, the nation’s capitol invaded by rioters and an atmosphere marked by dread and hysteria, curators at Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery in downtown Santa Barbara felt this community could use a space for peace and contemplation.

Drawing from its artists’ studios, collector consignments and its own treasure vault, the gallery staff has assembled 16 works spanning from 1890 to today that invite a meditative or peaceful state of mind. 

The exhibition is open for socially distant viewing through March 1. Gallery visits are limited to eight mask-wearing guests at a time. The exhibit is also available online.

This delightful show of five artists sharing a common interest is the product of curator Susan Bush’s observation that when it comes to eco-consciousness among contemporary artists, there’s something special about bears. Adonna Khare, Beth Van Hoesen, Susan McDonnell, Pamela Kendall Schiffer, and Nicole Strasburg may all have started out expressing their fascination with these extraordinary animals independently, but encountering the work together, the viewer is left with no choice but to accept that there’s now a distinct bear area in art.

Landscape and animal paintings are tough. Not tough to digest, but tough to review. Like portraits and landscapes, animal paintings are what they are—they depict, though not necessarily through ideas. They are meant to look a certain way. Mostly they are meant to entice a viewer by technique, use of color, or style.

A few years ago, Sullivan Goss curator Susan Bush began to notice the number of artists regularly depicting bears in their works. Artists had begun to choose bears as their subject matter not only to show the profound beauty of the animal but also to raise awareness to their fragile existence and habitat in North America.

The Contemporary Bear Area Artists exhibition aims to showcase the majestic North American bear while informing visitors of the effects that a growing human population, climate change and changes in hunting regulations have on bears.

Born in the depths of the great recession in 2008, this holiday group exhibition offers approximately 100 works of art all priced at $1,000 or less. The goal, according to curator Susan Bush, is to make quality work available to collectors who might not have the means to acquire something larger. While it began as a loose collection of work by people whom Bush knew and liked, regardless of whether or not they were represented by the gallery, 100 Grand has grown into a unique community event, the de facto salon of Santa Barbara’s art scene.

AN INCUBATOR OF EMERGING TALENT AND AN ENTRYWAY FOR BEGINNING COLLECTORS, the seventh annual 100 Grand exhibition is now on view at Sullivan Goss through January 31st. Featuring 100 quality works of art for $1,000 or less, the exhibition is a favorite for lookers and buyers during the holiday season.

“This show is an opportunity for local artists to get their work on our gallery walls. There are so many great artists in Santa Barbara, but we can only represent a handful,” shared Susan Bush, exhibition curator.