"The Journey Home"
SUSAN SEDDON BOULET
"The Journey Home"
SUSAN SEDDON BOULET
Susan Seddon Boulet, a San Francisco Bay Area artist whose work is widely
known, died at her home in Oakland on Monday, April 28, after a long struggle
with cancer. She was 55.
Susan Boulet was born in Brazil of English parents who had emigrated there
from South Africa. Her early childhood was spent on a large cattle ranch
which allowed her great freedom and where she first developed the love of
fairy tales and fantasy that would later be revealed in her paintings. She
was educated in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janiero, and later in Switzerland. It
was here that she began her training as an artist. She came to the United
States in 1967, but always retained a great love for the land and people
of Brazil.
Susan Boulet's art has had a profound influence on many people. She was
a prolific artist whose themes ranged from portrayals of medieval figures
and fantasy characters in her early work to goddesses and shaman figures
in more recent images. Working principally in oil pastel, inks and occasionally
pencil, she developed a distinctive personal style characterized by the
use of color applied in layers from which dream-like forms emerged. Susan
Boulet drew her inspiration from a wide variety of sources: mythology and
poetry, Jungian psychology and worldwide spiritual traditions, as well as
a deep love of animals and the natural world. Underlying her work is a spiritual
quality and a universality which strikes a chord in people from many walks
of life. Her paintings have been widely reproduced and are held in collections
around the world. Published works include Shaman: The Paintings of Susan
Seddon Boulet (1989), and The Goddess Paintings (1994), both published by
Pomegranate Artbooks in Rohnert Park.
The inspiration that people drew from Susan Boulet's work was often heightened
by their meeting her in person. She loved to be present when her paintings
were shown and those who met her, however briefly, were invariably touched
by her empathy, gentleness, modesty and charm. Her ability to listen and
make personal connections won her innumerable admirers. Indeed, one of her
greatest challenges was to balance her artist's need for solitude with her
love of friends. At a recent gathering in her honor a large number of people
paid tribute to her generosity, sense of humor and the profound influence
her art had exerted upon their lives. Susan Seddon Boulet was married to
Larry Boulet who died in 1980. She is survived by a son, Eric, and a brother,
Patrick Seddon, of Oakland, California, and her step-mother, Naide Seddon,
and a brother, Ernani Seddon, of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
"Gaia"
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