Susan Williams is known for her imagined landscapes—dreamy, interior descendants of romantic landscapes in a style recognizably her own. Her paintings represent thoughts and memories that brush up against distractions: an island, a tree, a rock, painted on a canvas of her own private stories, narratives, and daydreams. “The overall impression,” wrote one admirer, “is that of a tone poem—as if Whistler ran into Cormac McCarthy.”
Williams’ work appears in “OUT THERE”, a three person show at Caldbeck in May and June 2025. Of the work in the exhibition, she writes, “When I began painting landscapes, I often worked from my observations of the natural world. I was also influenced by art from the past. As my work evolved, I pushed further and further beyond literal realities. I wanted to paint nature from my memories and imagination. These paintings have an element of realism in that the rocks, trees, and lakes are recognizable as such, but they are not actual places. They are the traces of my mind wandering….by minimizing the literal and enlarging the imaginary, I am trying to take viewers into a liminal space, to place them in the borderland between Nature as they know it and the many variations of Nature that appear in my mind’s eye”OUT THERE 2025, Kasper, Watts, Williams
As her work evolves—quietly, evanescently—Williams stays true to herself and her vision, something that is not always easy to accomplish. It is far easier to say, “I must change,” or “I must try something completely new.” It is harder, in many ways, to stay the course.
Williams has had significant exhibitions in New York and Maine; juried and group shows; success with numerous collections, including an acquisition of a group of paintings by McKinsey & Co and Goldman Sachs & Co; and solo exhibitions at the Gerald Peters Gallery in New York City. She is represented by the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland, Maine and Downing-Yudain in Stamford, Connecticut and has worked with various art consultants, including Kate Bellin, Bea Medinger, Lily Downing, and Heather Hearst. Her work has also appeared in numerous blogs and publications. A New York City native, Williams has a B.A. in Art History and Visual Art from Bowdoin College (cum laude). She is the mother of two grown children, Margaret and George, and divides her time between Camden, Maine and Mill Valley, California with her husband, Rufus.
