Sedona’s amazing beauty and light shines indoors exciting new venue in West Sedona: The Susan Pitcairn Gallery. It is also a chance to discover and talk directly with one of Sedona's best artists.
“Intimate, poetic, inspiring, amazing.” These are some of the common reactions of fine art lovers who have discovered this charming and welcoming studio gallery featuring the landscapes of Susan Hubble Pitcairn, an award-winning local artist dedicated to preserving and painting the beauty all around her, from red rocks to Oak Creek to the Grand Canyon to the sensuous junipers and sycamores throughout.
“I especially love the vast skies and clouds of the Southwest, and the spacious feeling they inspire. Everything in nature speaks to us if we listen, and offers us inspiration and hope,” Susan observes.
An invitational participant in the prestigious Sedona Plein Air Festival and instructor at the Sedona Arts Center, Susan is also known for combining inspirational poetry with her fresh, gestural studies of the Southwest. Often written while she is out on a trail or knee deep in water, she simply writes what she feels and hears in response to the majesty and strength of a mountain, the interconnectedness of trees, the hope of an ascending pathway. Her first volume of paintings and poems, “The Poetry of Place,” is a popular item at the gallery, along with affordable giclees of her best-loved paintings.
Pitcairn has trained with John Cogan, Clive Pates, Marcia Burtt, Clark Mitchell, Cody DeLong, Tom Allen, Kitty Wallis and others, drawing her skills and style from many influences that meld into a dynamic, colorist blend of gesture and detail.
“Susan is a master of conveying form, color, space and light in both larger and smaller format. Once you experience her work you will notice more colors in nature. She paints the poetry and spirit of place,” says Sherry Lynn Ratner, former NAU and Yavapai College art instructor.
The gallery also features guest artists such as Vince Fazio, Cody DeLong, Rose Moon, Mary Lois Brown and others.
Complementing the paintings perfectly are the contemporary natural bronzes and wood sculptures of Leon Haller. Each explores shape and texture and his passionate love of expressive twists of juniper and other high desert woods. These contemporary biomorphic pieces suggest the natural, the spiritual and the ethereal. Leon begins with what he initially sees in the found piece. He then refines that to bring out what is the underlying flowing form.
The gallery also showcases a rare display of natural gems: the Alabaster carvings and inlaid pieces of Susan Zalkind and Paul Hawkins. Lifelong artists, the Northern Arizona couple mines the Alabaster and transform each piece into a masterful and sacred expression that is poetry in form. Many of the pieces serve a function as well, making perfect candle bowls for meditation or creating a softly inspirational glow to any nighttime setting. Their work has been featured in various magazines, including The Lapidary Journal and the Sedona Monthly.
Suzy Allen’s exquisitely modelled ceramics complete the gallery’s offerings of nature-themed sculpture. Frogs, lizards, turtles, fish and full moons adorn her masterful ceramic pieces. Suzy assists in the popular ceramic studios at the Sedona Arts Center.
When visiting, you are likely to find one of the artists engaged in creating a work of art and inviting you to a cup a tea and a visit on the gallery’s comfortable sofa. Or you may have a chance to meet Susan’s well-known husband, Dr. Richard Pitcairn (author of the classic “Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.”) For more information call 928.182.1844. Located at 1865 West 89A, with ample parking next to Pizza Picazzos. See map.
OPEN noon to 6, Tuesdays to Saturdays.
SECOND SATURDAYS are the gallery’s time for special openings and events, typically a demonstration at 3 pm, followed by a poetry reading at 4 and artist reception at 5.
Video Guide to Sedona 
