About
Resident of New York City for many years and long-resident of Hudson Valley, NY, and frequent visitor to North Carolina's Albemarle region, she is often inspired by light and shapes during hikes along the Hudson River and in the fields of upstate mountains, and east coast watersides from Maine to Florida.
Exhibits and Awards: Susan was accepted at the 123rd Annual Open Exhibition at the National Art Club on Gramercy Park, NYC, through the historic Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club (CLWAC), and was the recipient of their highest watercolor honor: The Edgar A. Whitney Memorial 2020 Prize. She was juried into life-long membership in the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) as of May 2021. Susan was juried into CLWAC's 1st Associates/Non-Member Online Show of 2020. She was accepted at the Salmagundi Art Club of New York City juried 2019 Annual Open Painting Exhibit, as well as exhibiting in 2020 with the NAWA in midtown NYC. She won two first prizes in watercolor and mixed media at the Wallisch Homestead Annual Art Show, exhibited in NAWA's New Members Show. Master watercolorist Joseph Zbukvic juried Susan's painting "Comes the Day" for exhibit acceptance to San Diego Watercolor Society's 5th Annual Plein Air Exhibition 2021. Susan won a Finalist Award at the Art Show International Gallery 2023 for her figure series in the 5th Figurative International Juried Art Competition. (See below for current juried shows.)
Susan has participated in many art members' annual exhibits as well as juried gallery exhibits in New York City, and juried shows, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Aside from juried exhibit shows, her paintings and prints can be found in the historic waterfront Edenton, NC gallery, Chowan Arts Council Gallery, and in selected local restaurants and shops and private collections across the country, especially California, North Carolina, and New York.
Susan has taught beginner watercolor classes for adults and holds plein air group painting sessions at her home. And is also known for her likeness-capturing dignified pet portraits.
Influences: Susan benefited from a premier 3-day workshop taught by the inimitable Joseph Zbukvic in 2022, and an artist workshop with New York's well known bridge painter (and president of the American Watercolor Society), the instructor Antonio Masi. Susan participated in the 11th Annual Art Publisher's Invitational: Paint the Adirondacks Week 2022. In earlier years she painted and studied with painter and inspiring instructor Carolyn Pedersen, NWS, and with watercolorist Adrian Clive Holmes (Richmond/West Stockbridge Artists’ Guild), and life model sessions at the Art Students League of New York, and drawing studies at 92Y Art Center, and countless workshops with talented instructors and painters through the years, including the master artist faculty of the unique 3-dayWatercolor Live Global Art Conference 2022 and then the 2023 conference. She is a member of numerous art associations including the Edward Hopper Art House and the Community Arts Association of New York and New Jersey (CAA), and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club (CLWAC), and a member of the San Diego Watercolor Society, and the Northwest Watercolor Society, and an associate artist member of the Audubon Artists and the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, and an artist member at Rockland Center for the Arts (ROCA) benefitting from enlightened Eleanor Grace Miller’s instruction and had also been a long-time artist participant of ROCA's life model studies.
RECENT and CURRENT SHOWS: Susan was juried into the Summer 2022 TriAnnual Exhibition of the San Diego Watercolor Society and in July 2022 was elected as a Juried Artist of the Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival competition week partnered with the Wallkill River School of New York, as well as being juried in to the CLWAC Associate & Members 2022 with her painting "Hudson River Rocks" at the Satellite Show at the Ridgewood Art Institute. Her painting "Boscobel Poppies" won 3rd Place in Watercolor in the 21st Annual Festival of the Arts at Saint Francis Festival of the Arts in New Jersey in the spring of 2022. Susan's painting "Black-Eyed Correspondents" was accepted into the juried 80th Annual Exhibit of Audubon Artists, a national organization based in New York City.
Susan's painting "Posing Bold" was recently in the HMVC Gallery of New York City's online curated show Awake. Her painting "Stormy Day Sail" was exhibited in late 2022 at New York City's Tribeca gallery, One Art Space, where she won the Elizabeth Rose Genius Foundation Award and cash prize. Susan won a Finalist Award at the Art Show International Gallery 2023 (online) for their January Animal theme with her dog portrait “I’m Good, You?” as well as a Finalist Still Life Award for "Chaos Bottled" and Honorable Mention for the 6th Color Teravarna International Online Competition 2023. Her painting "Posing Bold" was exhibited in the juried show at the Wallkill River Center for the Arts in Montgomery, NY in their Mixed Media 2023 show. She also won Honorable Mention Award at the 22nd Festival of the Arts of St Francis of Assisi in New Jersey, and a Community Art Associate (CAA) of NY/NJ prize award for her "Summer Light" painting. Selected as a Juried Artist at the Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival, Fall 2023.
Art Instagram/Facebook account: @SusanLaisHostetler
Email: sjhLais@gmail.com • Insta/Facebook: @SusanLaisHostetler • Phone: 845 623 2837
Welcome. You will find the art works organized into topics under the "Gallery" button with a brief pull-down menu on the navigation bar above. Feel free to contact me with any questions
Watercolor paints and pen and ink are the tools to which I’ve always gravitated. I discovered a dark lovely bottle of ink and a nib pen when I was young, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Watercolors I picked up because they went with ink it seemed to me. I’ve been carrying around little watercolor sets since I was a child, and although as an adult I know that watercolors are hard, fast, and difficult to control, I nearly always find the colors pleasing, even if I think I’ve botched it. --Susan
ABOUT THIS ARTIST:
Susan Lais Hostetler is an award-winning watercolorist who also has a knack for pen & ink. Her style is loose and fresh in her figure studies & fast-sketch art, and lovely in her landscapes and vintage barns—the latter often plein-air paintings.
