ANDOVER — I took a quick down-and-back trip to Boston before an expected snowstorm to retrieve the vibrant and playful paintings by artist Susan Blatt, for our next exhibit at Proctor Academy. Susan’s angular corner studio in SoWa Boston is spacious and light-filled, showcasing her paintings and framed works on paper. 

I discovered Susan’s art over the summer while exploring SoWa with family, enjoying the plentiful art, music, and delicious food the vendors and food trucks had to offer. As a campus curator, it is always an exciting challenge to find new artists, and this discovery was an exciting and successful one. 

Susan’s work immediately captivated me with its bright, bold shapes evoking memories of maps or puzzle pieces. Her works on paper, layered with intricate lines and translucent layers of light juxtaposing large areas of opaque colors and curves, offer an experience of being drawn into an alleyway or tunnel. 

Others are reminiscent of architectural facets playfully filling the surface. The color is thinly layered, void of fussing or excessive reworking, creating a refreshing collection of uplifting compositions, timely for lifting the spirits during the doldrums of winter. 

Susan grew up in Florida, where the flat topography and a landscape dominated by vibrant and saturated color focused her eye on the form and shape of things. This led to her interest in line, color, shape, and form and to her development as an abstract painter.

She is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design, with a BFA in painting and a BA from Tulane University. Her work has been selected for inclusion in numerous exhibitions across the United States juried by noted curators, and her work is in many private collections in the United States and abroad. She maintains a studio in the SoWa Arts District in Boston.

Susan’s collection will be on exhibit through June 2025. To see more of Susan’s work, visit susanjblatt.com/home.html. While this is not a public exhibit, please email Molly Leith at leithmo@nullproctoracademy.org for a private viewing. 

Please note, starting in April, Proctor will be offering regular public viewings of collections on exhibit in the Lovejoy Library, thanks to the support of our student docent program. If you haven’t seen Rebecca McGee Tuck’s “The Current Tides,” a collection of weavings and installations exploring the balance between humans and nature, this exhibit is now open to the public, starting in April, on Monday evenings, from 5:30–6:30 PM. Please email campus art curator Molly Leith at leithmo@nullproctoracademy.org for details or to reserve a time.