After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Bronx native, Sue Barrasi traveled Europe and devoured the works of the masters — especially Claude Monet with whom she has been obsessed since a child. While in Spain, she discovered the wonders of Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida who has greatly influenced her work.
Barrasi found her way to The Art Students League where she had the incredible fortune to study with Sherrie McGraw, David Leffel and Gregg Kreutz. She started to win awards in juried shows, and continued to travel, financed by illustrating for various magazines and freelancing at NYC ad agencies. Barrasi has designed postage stamps, book covers, images for men’s apparel, international logos, backdrops for off-Broadway plays and posters. She has been awarded an Art Students League, Artist in Residency and a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant.
When time came to raise her daughters, her true masterpieces, she laid her brushes aside and focused on fingerpainting, mudpies and murals. Eventually she began teaching part-time at private art schools in New York and New Jersey and taking on private students. In 2014 she studied at the Ridgewood Art Institute with John Phillip Osborne, his collective impact on her sensibilities cannot be put into words. It is here she explored the prismatic palette which she continues to study today.
“I strive for deliberate application of paint, trying to make every brush stroke significant. I continue to explore composition, love moving a horizon or sometimes playing with pattern. Sometimes I forget all the above and fall in awe of the sunlight dancing on a scene or object and just grab my brushes and go! I am mesmerized by natural light and it is this passion that drives me to paint. Painting in North light forces me to quickly make decisions. Painting is not just my passion but my addiction. ”