Artist statement: Sue Caldwell divides her time between Baltimore and the Western Maryland mountains.
Collaging is an art form she experimented with during the Covid lockdown in 2020. She started making more collages as a way to be in nature without leaving her Baltimore home.
Her subjects are landscapes and water vistas taken from her property in Swallow Falls and the Deep Creek Lake area.
Her technique is unusual in that she paints on sheets of paper, then tears the paper into irregular shapes and reassembles them onto the canvas. She finds this the best way to incorporate nuances in color, light and texture into a piece. By layering the colors this way, the finished pieces appear very different when viewed from close up. From a distance, they resemble impressionist oil or acrylic, but upon closer inspection they are intricate bits of paper and color.

Artist description: This piece is inspired by the light coming through the trees in a photograph taken on Swallow Falls Trail. Painted paper, torn and reassembled.