Artist pours soul into painting

Susan Duke is making an impression on the art market.

“Susan’s work is that of a master.

Really great art speaks volumes about the artist – where they’ve been and what they’ve experienced. We are proud to have Susan’s work among the world-class art we represent,” Ky Mason, of Smith-Mason Legacies, said.

All of Duke’s work is created in the oil medium that she loves so passionately.

“I prefer the immediacy and power of oil. It best expresses the evocative spirit I strive to imbue my subjects with. I want to offer my viewers the equivalent of a minivacation, a moment of personal space to renew and revive. For me, Impressionism is an antidote to the stress and complexities of modern-day life,” Duke said.

“My goal has always been to be a professional painter. My oils have been shown at upscale galleries in some of the most highly regarded art markets around the country including the Renjeau Gallery in Boston; the Ambassador in New York City; Atelier in Carmel, Calif.; and the Buckhead in Atlanta,” Duke said.

From the time she was two-years-old, she knew she was destined to be an artist.

“When I was two-years-old, my parents gave me a set of paints, a tablet of paper and an easel, and I was hooked. An artist was all I ever wanted to be,” Duke said.

Starting off, Duke was a self-described “military brat,” which meant she moved around a lot in her adolescent years. By the time her dad retired from the military, the family was settled in Shreveport and Duke graduated high school at Fair Park.

“Many of my earliest happy memories are of sitting at my easel, looking through the window and painting the scenes outside. I was encouraged to study art and at a couple of schools was the only child allowed to enroll in adult classes. I sold my rst commissioned painting at the age of 12,” Duke said.

After graduating from Santa Barbara City College with a degree in graphic communication, she landed a job at The New York Times Company’s Santa Barbara of ce, where she worked as art director and illustrator. She continued her education by attending night school at the University of California Santa Barbara to earn her bachelor’s degree. She worked there and at the EF Foundation in that capacity for the next 12 years. During this time, she garnered 23 state and national awards.

A turning point for her was the opportunity to spend two weeks in Paris, Duke said. It was there at the world renowned Louvre Museum, Musée de Montmartre and the Jeu de Paume that she fell more deeply in love with the French Impressionist painters she had studied for years, such as Monet and Renoir. Duke can not only trace her dedication to Impressionist painting to her time in France but can trace her family tree all the way to French aristocracy.

She came back to Shreveport to be close to her family in 1990 and later married fellow Impressionist painter George H. Gibbens III with whom she enjoyed a burgeoning art career. Unfortunately, she suffered a series of painful losses in her family. For ve years in a row, a member of her beloved immediate family died, starting with her mother-in-law Virginia, then her mother Clara, followed by her father Calvin, next came brother Calvin Jr., and husband George passed away from cancer in 2003.

For many years until his death, they had painted and exhibited their Impressionist works together in major art markets around the country – both working in oils using a palette knife technique.

On his death bed, George told Susan she should marry their good friend Patrick Posey who was at the time a musician and singer/ songwriter in Nashville. Posey came home, and the couple married in 2004. Today, they live in a very unique – one might say “artistic” house in the woods that Posey started building 30 years ago on his family property in Benton and added on to when he married Duke. Duke has a studio on the grounds in a separate building where she creates her Impressionistic paintings.

Since becoming a professional ne arts painter in 1990, her work has been found in corporate and private collections in Boston, New York, Boca Raton, New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta, Aspen, Santa Barbara, La Jolla and Carmel as well as around the Ark- La-Tex.

She has recently mounted a showing of 24 original oils at Boomtown Casino’s 1800 Prime Restaurant in conjunction with Bossier Art Council’s Wine Art Music. The exhibit was on display last month.

Duke also has several works on display at the prestigious Smith-Mason Legacies at 2402 Line Ave. in Shreveport.

Take an opportunity to see her art at Smith- Mason Legacies in Shreveport. You can also visit her website at susandukeart.com.

– Karl Hasten