From her earliest memory, Susan K. Burgess has connected to the emotive and sensual qualities of paint. Now in her sixties, she specializes in painting on-site or 'En Plein Air.' Such endeavors require that she carry her equipment and supplies to wherever she paints: through the canyons of New Mexico, up and down the steep hill towns of Umbria, and into conservation lands and coastal areas of Mexico, New England, California, Italy, and Portugal.

In these spaces, she searches for moments in time and place that elicit feelings and contrasts she can capture in paint. Perhaps it is a gate left ajar, allowing a glimpse of an inner courtyard; a mountain mist surrounding the tower of a 6th century abbey; an endless, shocking-blue sky above a layered mesa; lush vegetation springing from between barren desert rock formations; or a serene salt marsh masking the remains of an early shipwreck. Susan Burgess conjures up sensation, emotion, mystery, and power by simply painting on a platform. The resulting paintings have been styled "traditional, with a contemporary flair," but those who connect with them say "it's like being there."