A range of experiences, beginning with childhood museum classes, imparted to me an openness to experimentation, and my concentrated studies of drawing and printmaking with Maestro Giorgio Morandi in Florence, Italy, provided me with a specific set of skills.

I have a strong affinity to Renaissance drawing from having studied master drawings for a year at the Uffizi Gallery Library of Prints and Drawings in Florence, Italy. Drawings that were complete without being “finished” resonated the most with me there. The color of the page, ink, metal, or pencil was in itself sufficient. In an “unfinished” state, there was room in the equation for me as the observer.

I am fascinated and startled by beauty and strangeness. Always alert to the gentle bend of a flower, the intricate delicacy and power of a feathered wing, I am reaching for a felt presence. Studying the way that the afternoon light animates a leaf, a petal, an insect, a figure, I am searching for the poetics of a single moment, a (lively) still point in the distractions of a fast-forward world.

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EDUCATION

University of California at Santa Barbara (1960-63)

Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy; study with Giorgio MorandiSpecial studies: drawings, prints and texts, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy (1963-64)

San Francisco Art Institute, study with printmaker Gordon Cook (1965-66)

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Monterey Museum of Art, FLora Fauna, January-April, 2023

LOOK, Group Exhibition, Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA (2020)

Storied Paper, Group Exhibition, Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel, CA (2017)

Salon at the Triton, Juried Group Exhibition, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA (2017)

Susan Manchester: A Contemporary Lineage, Solo Exhibition, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA (2016)

Momentum: An Experiment in the Unexpected, Group Exhibition, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA (2013-14)

Face To Face: 30 years of Portraiture, Group Exhibition, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA (2013-14)

Botanical Meditations, Group Exhibition, Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel, CA (2013-14)

Contemporary Heritage: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Group Exhibition, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA (2013-14)

Art in Bloom, Group Exhibition, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA (2013-14)

Inaugural Exhibition, Seager Gray Gallery, Group Exhibition, Mill Valley, CA (2011-12)

Cultivating Creativity, The Doud House Now, Group Exhibition, Museum of Monterey, Monterey, CA (2011-12)

50/fifty: 50 gifts for the Next Fifty Years, Group Exhibition, Monterey Museum of Art Monterey, Monterey, CA (2008-09)

MontereyNOW, solo exhibition, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA (2008-09)

Parallel Lines, Works on Paper from Monterey County Collections, Hartnell College Gallery, Salinas, CA (2008-09)

Susan Manchester: New & Recent Drawings, solo exhibition, Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Santa Barbara, CA (2007)

Thick Paint/ Thin Paint, 50 years of California Abstract Art, Group Exhibition, Hartnell College Gallery, Salinas, CA (2007)

Works on Paper, Group Exhibition, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY (2005)

Reflecting Nature, Still Life Paintings from California Collections, Group Exhibition, Hartnell College Gallery, Salinas, CA (2005)

Recent Acquisitions, Group Exhibition, the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA (2004)

Rendering & Articulation: A Drawing Exhibit, Group Exhibition, The Carl Cherry Foundation for the Arts, Carmel, CA (2004)

Masters of the Sea, Group Exhibition, Hartnell College Gallery, Salinas, CA (2004)

Get Real: An Overview of Contemporary Realism, Edith Caldwell Gallery, Sausalito, CA (2003-02)

A Fine Line: Artists Who Draw, Group Exhibition, Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz, CA (2003-02)

Anyone You Know? Six Centuries of Portraits, Group Exhibition, Hartnell College Gallery, Salinas, CA (2003-02)

Small Images, Group Exhibition, Sullivan & Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (2003-02)

Perches in the Soul, Group Exhibition, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA (2000-01)

At the Millennium: Contemporary Paintings from Northern California, Group

Exhibition, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA (2000-01)

Small Works, Group Exhibition, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA (1999)

Susan Manchester: New Drawings, solo exhibition, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1998)

Works on Paper, Group Exhibition, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY (1997)

Three Women, Group Exhibition, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1997)

The Figure Show, Group Exhibition, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1996)

Works on Paper, Group Exhibition, Park Avenue Armory, New York NY (1996)

Art for the Parks, Group Exhibition, Nashville, TN (1996)

New Drawings by Susan Manchester, solo exhibition, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1995)

Contemporary Drawings, Group Exhibition, Quincy University Art Gallery, Quincy, IL (1995)

Contemporary Still Lifes, Group Exhibition, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1994)

Drawing the Line, Group Exhibition, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA (1994)

Artists’ Self Portraits in Black and White, Group Exhibition, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1993)

Introductions ‘92: Susan Manchester, solo exhibition, Edith Caldwell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1992)

Bay Area Talent, Group Exhibition, Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1991)

Earth’s Alive, Group Exhibition, Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1990)

Varieties of Drawings, Group Exhibition, Allport Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1989)

Drawing Exhibit, Group Exhibition, College of Marin Art Gallery, Kentfield, CA (1989)

A Passage of Time, New Mexico, solo exhibition, First Impressions Gallery, Carmel, CA (1988)

Watercolors and Etchings, solo exhibition, First Impressions Gallery, Carmel, CA (1986)

Paintings and Etchings, solo exhibition, Pantechnicon Gallery, San Francisco, CA (1974)

Aspects of the American Indian, solo exhibition, Esther Bear Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (1972)

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA

The Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA

Achenbach Foundation of Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Montage Health, Monterey, CA

Fine Art Collection, City of Monterey, Monterey, CA

San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA

Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA

Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Bowdoin College Art Museum, Brunswick, ME

The York School, Monterey, CA

Monterey Peninsula College Foundation, Monterey, CA

SELECTED CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

The Highlands Inn, Carmel Highlands, CA

Saks Fifth Avenue, Chicago, IL

The Clorox Corporation, Oakland, CA

Claridge’s Hotel, London, England, NM