Meet the Speakers at our 1st Annual Mark Twain Conference in Redding

Our Fourth Speaker is:

Susan B. Durkee
Portrait Artist/Historian

Susan's Powerpoint presentation will walk us through her latest portrait of Isabel V. Lyon, Mark Twain's personal secretary. 

An award winning artist, Susan works out of her spacious West Redding, Connecticut studio,

The Lobster Pot, that sits on Mark Twain's initial property purchase in Redding. This property was the home of Isabel Lyon from 1907 to 1909, which is a special tie-in to the portrait.

Susan graduated from Greens Farms Academy, attended one year at the School of Fine Arts at Boston University and received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont.

 

Her work is displayed in private collections throughout the country and she has been featured on 4 Cable Television Shows, appeared in several publications as well as a Portrait Artist in the Spring 2004 National Geographic article on Greenwich, Connecticut.

 

Susan has also been invited to participate in many prestigious Juried National Art Shows including: The Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists, and the Salmagundi Club in New York.

 

Susan specializes in traditional grand manner style portraiture. She has been commissioned to paint individual, civic and corporate portraits.

 

Among her corporate clients are U.S. Tobacco, the Cancer Research Institute, and Baylor University Medical Center.

 

Although her concentration is focused mainly on formal portraiture, Susan has also been successful in painting seascapes, landscapes, and still lifes.