1. Any Day She Can Paint is A Good Day

   This article was originally published in Atlanticville, written by Linda DeNicola.

When artist Suzanne Osterweil Weber was still in high school and thinking about what to do with her life, she was told she was too sensitive to work in the highly competitive commercial art field. She knew there was some truth in that, so she became a teacher and an artist. Now older, wiser and much more confident, she is a portrait artist whose commissioned work is sought after by people who admire her large-scale, colorful, photo-realistic style. Besides commissioned paintings, she creates her own works of photo-realism with a surreal edge. Most of her fantasy-like paintings do not include people, unless they are sculptured statues. But they do include lots of imagery: flowers, animals, fish, birds and shells — references to the nature of all things. Every painting that she creates starts out as a collage, even the commissioned pieces. She lays her materials out on the floor and builds the collage until she is satisfied that she has found the mysterious and enigmatic design that is in her mind's eye. Once she is satisfied with the collage, she draws a grid over it and transfers the design to canvas, where it is painted with acrylics. The collages are works of art in themselves. All of her creative energy goes into developing them. Then her many years of learning about color mixing and brush stroke take over, and the collage is transformed into a large canvas. Contrasts between color and content abound and form a vocabulary of images. Weber said she tries to create a private world where the viewer has a couple of choices: either ponder the images until they yield meaning, or bask in the beautiful colors. For her commission work, she includes family photographs and images that represent the family's interests. They might include a family pet, a flower garden, scenes from a favorite place, or sports.

A retired high school principal, the artist lives in Ocean Township with her husband, Michael Weber, who is also a retired high school principal. She said her portrait work is the part of her "oeuvre" that keeps her connected to the world. "I've met wonderful, very interesting people. Their ideas have enriched my work. My desire is to give them a family legacy," she said. In one very beautiful diptych, she included the woman who commissioned the piece, the woman's husband and their friends. She also included scenes of one of their favorite vacation places. "There are a number of things going on at once," she said, explaining that the family goes to the British Virgin Islands for vacations. "They love it, so she gave me photos that were taken there. She also told me that she loves color, exotic birds and flowers." In the painting there is an attractive young woman lying in the sun, a man awkwardly diving off a cliff, a woman swimming underwater with a diving mask. Another one of her commissions depicts a woman with her children. "Because the woman is part French, the background is a scene in Paris," she said. In June, her photo-realistic paintings, collages and silk-screen prints were exhibited at the Eatontown Public Library. She has had 15 solo exhibitions and has participated in hundreds of group shows. Her art hangs in public and private collections including the National Art Museum of Sport in Indianapolis, the U.S. Information Agency and Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch. Locally, she has shown at Artforms in Red Bank, the Monmouth Festival of the Arts in Tinton Falls, and the N.J. Center for the Visual Arts, Summit. Her sports paintings are currently on display at Cooper Rehabilitation and Sports Therapy in Middletown.

Weber was one of the pioneers in Manhattan�s SoHo loft movement, having lived there in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s, before moving to Ocean Township in 1992. She has had a number of studios in the 46 years that she has been an artist. Her first was in Greenwich Village in New York City. "I paid $50 a month for the studio on Jane Street. I spent eight hours a day there, but it didn�t have a bathroom. I think the landlord forgot I was there," she recalled. She also had a loft on Broome Street for 15 years. "That was truly luxurious. At the time, I was the assistant principal at the Art & Design High School in Manhattan," she said. "I was in that position for 11 years. It was wonderful. I worked with 60 art teachers."

Now she works out of a room in her house with a large window facing the backyard pool. The walls in her ranch house are filled with her own large colorful paintings as well as the work of artists she admires. Weber retired from her last job in education in 1997. She was the principal of Monmouth Regional High School in Tinton Falls. "I left because I wanted to paint full time. I had been teaching since my sophomore year in college. I just want to paint and read and think," she said, adding, "Any day that I can paint is a good day."