Watercolorist Susan Gasparro believes that even early on, she was destined to become an artist. She says her mother, an artist in her own right, recalls giving Gasparro tape, paper and a pair of children’s scissors at age 2, which she used to make a carousel.
Gasparro later attended the High School of Art and Design, a Manhattan school that integrates art, technology and academics. Hoping to pursue a career as an artist, she went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., but, feeling that she wasn’t learning anything she hadn’t already mastered in high school, she left and took an internship at Star Magazine.
“That got the ball rolling. After a few years, I worked at Successful Meetings Magazine, then Soap Opera Weekly, and later Soap Opera Digest,” says Gasparro, adding that she “was with the Soaps for 25 years.”
Sue and husband Rocco ended up in Vero Beach after deciding to leave the city, and she worked as an art director for several magazines, locally and remotely. It was while she was recovering from breast cancer that she again found solace in art.
“I hadn’t picked up a paintbrush since college. I never had time to paint,” she says, explaining that all her energy had gone into building her career.
“I said, ‘What can I do that I’m not going to have to leave the house? I have to do my art, because I don’t know how to do anything else,’” she says.
Although she initially disliked painting in watercolors, having tried it in school, she knew from her sister, a wedding planner for the Ritz Carlton, that it was trending in wedding paraphernalia. The soft watercolor palette is ideally suited for nuptials, with hazy edges that appear dreamy and romantic, so she decided to give it a try.
“I gave myself a month to teach myself watercolor techniques. I found people and styles I liked and then emulated them. I fell in love with watercolors that month; I found it very therapeutic. I have anxiety, and when I paint, it goes away. It’s a really tranquil feeling. Once I start painting, I’m calm,” says Gasparro.
“During my ‘time of misery,’ I went down a rabbit hole looking at the works of other watercolor artists,” she says, citing her appreciation of works by British botanical watercolorists Anna Mason and Billy Showell.
“These women are phenomenal artists. Anna Mason does a strawberry with water on it that looks like you could pick it up.”
Inspired by their works, Gasparro began trying her hand at painting tropical flowers and plants. She has completed floral triptychs on commission, some incorporating the contrasting delicate and bold leaves of various palms, as well as others that glow with brilliant outsize flowers or a combination of the two. One of her flower watercolors even incorporates a delicate green frog nestled in amongst the flower’s petals.
Her portraits of people, whether realistic or abstract, capture the essence of the person at a moment of time in their life, and she also enjoys the challenge of painting dog portraits and baby animals, explaining, “It’s fun trying to get the fur just right. I love all the little details.”
She has satisfied her proclivity to paint buildings, another of her favorite subjects, by taking commissions to paint residences, capturing the homeowners’ personalities in new and different ways.
“It’s a challenge to get the shadow and detail just right with architecture. When you start to paint, you have to train your eye to look at the shadows and the tones of the color, to differentiate when the shadow fades to light.”
She has also painted a series of Parisian street scenes, homages to one of her favorite cities, which gave her the chance to depict the essence of the homes, shops and buildings as well as the character of the city.
While she continues to work remotely as a graphic designer, and locally on other watercolor projects, Gasparro has garnered a large following for her commissioned work. As postponed weddings began to be rescheduled post-COVID, she was inundated with requests for her custom designed wedding ‘suites’ including invitations, reply cards, maps, etc., each a work of art in itself.
Marrying her computer design skills with her watercolor skills, Gasparro creates pieces of art that memorialize that particular day. “It’s like a little story. All parts of a whole.”
For example, when she designs a map, she says, “Every single item is individual; the background, buildings, trees and streets. I paint it, scan it, clip it, and clean it up in Photoshop. Then, I compose the final image using InDesign.”
Her Watercolor Design Studio has now become a family affair, with her mother assisting with the painting, Rocco with the assembly and daughter Olivia with the photography and wax seals.
Of her artistic process, Gasparro says she sketches everything before starting the painting process.
“I like to layer. I start with a wash, then the mid tones and then the dark tones. Then, I put the highlights in at the end. It’s very satisfying,” she explains.
For all her work, she uses good watercolor paper and good paint, stressing, “They make a difference.”
Photos by Joshua Kodis
