Southern Indiana Living - Jan / Feb 2021

Painters of SoIN
“Cock of Walk”
The Creative Heart of Susie Byerley
Oil painter and grandmother
Standing at the top of a small hill
within the town of Hardinsburg
in Washington County,
the home of Susie and Wayne
Byerley is surrounded by 7 acres
of woods. Here, in this green world
where diverse species of birds come
to feed, goats saunter and fish swim
in the pond, Susie Byerley is often
thinking about how to translate these
refreshing scenes and myriad inflections
of color onto canvas.
“I am always painting and mixing
colors in my head,” Byerley said.
“I am always evaluating what process
to use so others can enjoy seeing
what I am seeing.”
Wildlife and domestic animals
are some of her favorite subjects to
paint. “Animals have always been
a part of my life,” she said. “As a
young girl, I loved horses and spent
hours drawing their fine details. I
later worked for a veterinarian for almost
30 years. It is not surprising that
when I began to paint seriously, in
my mid-40s, I would paint animals.”
A female cardinal perched in the
snow is the subject of Byerley’s painting
titled “Proud Lady.”
18 • Jan/Feb 2021 • Southern Indiana Living
“There are actually hints of blue
and green in her tan feathers,” Byerley
said, explaining the title of the
piece. “Her confident demeanor suggests
that she knows she is as beautiful
as the more brilliant red male.”
“Proud Lady” is a fairly recent
painting that Byerley compared to
one of her earlier works done when
she was aiming at something closer
to photorealism. “Allie With Fish,”
the earlier work, is characterized by
painstaking detail and precision,
looking almost photographic.
Byerley explained the shift: “As
I grew as a painter, I wanted to capture
more movement rather than the
stillness of a photograph. In ‘Proud
Lady,’ I softened the edges and
blurred some details to create more
vitality and also to leave something
to the viewer’s imagination.”
In a painting titled “Lambright’s
Barn,” Byerley captures the mellow
and peaceful attitude of a group of
cows lazing inside a barn where light
breaks through the stall gate and a
small window.
“I have a lot of fun representing
the personalities of animals,” Byerley
Story by Judy Cato
Photos by Lorraine Hughes
said of this painting.
In a painting titled “Cock of the
Walk,” a strutting rooster with a bright
red cockscomb and grand arching tail
feathers stands his ground over his
hens and a piece of watermelon.
Byerley is also well known for
her still-lifes and exquisite portraits
that often incorporate nature. Her
response to the COVID-19 pandemic
was to get to work painting portraits
of her three granddaughters. “If I got
the virus, I wanted them to have these
portraits,” she said.
When doing portraits, Byerley’s
preference is to paint from live models,
but her granddaughters’portraits
were painted from photographs.
“From models, I learn real skin tone,
the anatomy of the face and where exactly
light hits the face,” Byerley said.
“With COVID, this had to shut down.
Also, I would not ask my granddaughters
to sit still for me. That
would be torture. But they do like to
get dressed up for photographs.”
In her portrait of Macie holding
a bunny, the frame is filled with
the thrill of a moment. The little girl,
oblivious to her strap falling down or