Redding Resident of the Week: Susan Durkee

Name: Susan Boone Durkee

Occupation: Artist, specializing in portrait painting

Tell us about your work as a painter.

I am very fortunate to have a beautiful home and studio, called the Lobster Pot Studio, here on Mark Twain Lane. I look out on lovely gardens consisting of a sunken 80 foot garden, a topiary garden, a walled-in rose garden, many garden walkways and 200 acres of open space.

I have painted since I was about seven or eight years old. I am primarily self taught (by studying the masters), and I did work as an assistant to famed portrait artist Daniel Greene. I have been featured in many national juried art shows, publications, have been interviewed on four cable shows, and have had the excitement of being interviewed on NPR WSHU News last fall. 

My past corporate clients include: U.S. Tobacco, The Cancer Research Institute, Wellesley College, the Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut,  Baylor University Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University, Southern Methodist University, and Greens Farms Academy. I have just finished a portrait of famed theatre producer, Lucille Lortel, for the Players Club Collection in New York, and am currently working on a portrait of a founder of a prep school, a large portrait of Jim Thorpe for the National Art Museum of Sport.

Who are a few of your favorite artists, and why? 

Diego Velazquez, a total master if the essence of portraiture; John Singer Sargent for his masterful brush strokes and use of values and genius as a portrait painter; Willard Metcalf, the best landscape painter ever; and Henri Fanton Latour for his wonderful, sensitive still lifes and florals.

How long have you lived in Redding?

I bought my home here, The Lobster Pot, in 1985. When I purchased the property I was told that Mark Twain owned it . . . but it took me 10 years to finally confirm that Mark Twain actually named it The Lobster Pot.

What brought you here?

My mom and dad moved to Great Pasture Road in 1975. They purchased a home which had belonged to Dan Beard, one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America and an illustrator and friend of Mark Twain's. The amazing thing is that my dad met Dan Beard 50 years earlier (Dan Beard was 94 at the time) at a national shooting competition. I have a delightful photo, taken at that event, of my dad, who was 11 years old at the time standing next to Dan Beard.

What keeps you here?

Our property, The Lobster Pot, is very special not only because of its history, but because it is so beautiful, inspiring and magical.

What is your favorite thing about Redding?

The spirit of the town: the open space, history, and all the interesting people who live and have lived here.

(Editor's note: Susan's websites are SusanDurkee.com and thelobsterpotstudio.com).