Across the Bay

Acrylic on paper, 22" x 30", 2026

Even if they don't specifically paint landscape, artists are deeply influenced by their environment. This body of work grows out of my ongoing relationship with place. I often begin with a shoreline, a road, an industrial site, trees or some other fragment of the landscape that has stayed with me. From there, the work moves between observation and abstraction, becoming less about describing a scene and more about holding onto the overall impression of being there.

I work in watercolor, acrylic, encaustic, oil, and mixed media, building surfaces through layering and am drawn to the way materials carry time — how marks accumulate, how an image can be dismantled and reimagined, and how a surface can begin to reflect the layered, shifting nature of memory. Here in the Pacific Northwest, light is especially important. It can feel elusive, expansive, and transformative, revealing something one moment and dissolving it the next.

While some works remain rooted in recognizable landscape, others move more fully into abstraction. In both cases, I am interested in creating a sense of atmosphere and emotional resonance rather than a literal view. These paintings are shaped by recollection, experience, and the quiet, persistent ways place lives within us.

S. Clifford was born in Phoenix grew up in Anaheim and moved to Seattle as a teenager and graduated from the UW School of Art focused on printmaking and mixed media. She has received support from Artist Trust, 4Culture and KC Metro as well as Seniors Making Art. Her work has been seen in group and solo shows in Seattle, Tacoma, Fife and LaConner, and is included in private collections in the US, Germany and Canada. In between working jobs for a living, she managed to cofound a bookstore and art gallery in Belltown (Signature Bound); found an art program for seniors with dementia in West Seattle, and raised 3 kids. For the past two decades she focused primarily on small mixed media, assemblage pieces but recently returned full time to painting. She also curates and directs Roberson Art Space, an art gallery in the lobby of the Roberson Building in downtown Tacoma. She can be reached at susancliffordart@gmail.com.