Susan Bull Riley

Whether I am using oils or watercolor, fidelity to the natural world is a constant in all my work. My affection for representing birds and flowers in particular has led to collaborations with institutions where accuracy is valued as highly as beauty; I have paintings in the permanent collections of the New York State Museum and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology as well as private collections across the country and beyond. I have contributed nine paintings to the 2008 Breeding Birds of New York Atlas, which is being promoted in fine art circles as well as scientific ones, and several of my botanical watercolors can be found in a newly published anthology of the American Chestnut entitled “Mighty Giants.”

My training in art has been on my own, seeking out the wisdom of the painters I admire, whether or not they are still living. My academic training was in music, with an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and a masters in Baroque Flute performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. It’s hardly surprising that the music I am most inclined to play draws from both traditional and classical sources, much like the art I most admire.

A note about how these paintings were made: My paintings of flowers and other plants are done strictly from life. Their transience means that I am pressed to work with as few interruptions as possible until the painting is finished–depending on the complexity of the composition, between one day and weeks. All of the flower paintings are executed with close attention to accuracy, and in the case of the watercolors, are done in the tradition of botanical art that goes back hundreds of years and recalls a a time before photography when careful observation and artful representation of plants merged to create an art form that is enjoying a renaissance today.

The landscapes you see here are always begun outside, where I experience my happiest moments as an artist, but completed at leisure in the quiet of my studio.

To see more of Susan’s work, please check her website: www.susanbullriley.com

Products by Susan Bull Riley

The following products include artwork and/or writing by Susan Bull Riley. Most products are a collaboration of the wonderful artists and writers who have contributed to Acorn Designs over the years.

Showing 17–32 of 45 results

Milky Cap Mushrooms Notecard Acorn Designs

Milky Cap Mushrooms Notecard

$3.00$24.00

  Milky Cap Mushrooms (Lactarius spp.) Within the family Russelaceae, the genus Lactarius is named for the milk-like substance that is exuded from the cap when injured. There are a couple hundred species included in this genus. They are a very diverse group; some species will gush copious amounts of “milk” when you slice them…

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Queen Anne's Lace Notecard

Queen Anne’s Lace Journal

$29.00

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) Queen Anne’s Lace is the wild stock from which our familiar carrot is derived. These white lacy umbels are a familiar sight throughout North America. This plant is a biennial which grows in its second year from a taproot to a height of 2-4 feet. The leaves are finely divided.…

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Queen Annes Lace Lokta Card Acorn Designs

Queen Anne’s Lace Lokta Card

$5.00$8.00

Queen Anne’s Lace is the wild stock from which our familiar carrot is derived. These white lacy umbels are a familiar sight throughout North America. This plant is a biennial which grows in its second year from a taproot to a height of 2-4 feet. The leaves are finely divided. The attractive 2-4″ “flower” is…

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Queen Annes Lace Notecard Acorn Designs

Queen Anne’s Lace Notecard

$3.00$24.00

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) Queen Anne’s Lace is the wild stock from which our familiar carrot is derived. Although native to the Old World, these white lacy umbels are a familiar sight throughout North America. This plant is a biennial which grows in its second year from a taproot to a height of 2-4…

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PJ56

Queen Anne’s Lace Small Journal

$20.00

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) Queen Anne’s Lace is the wild stock from which our familiar carrot is derived. These white lacy umbels are a familiar sight throughout North America. This plant is a biennial which grows in its second year from a taproot to a height of 2-4 feet. The leaves are finely divided.…

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Rising Mists of Dawn Journal

Rising Mists of Dawn Journal

$29.00

The low melancholy yodel of a loon echoes over the rolling hills as we come to an opening where morning’s mist lingers. Stepping from the dark forest, dry twigs crackle beneath our feet provoking a pair of pied-billed grebes to guide their chicks through a maze of water lilies to the safety of deeper water.…

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Sanctuary for Barred Owls Notecard Acorn Designs

Sanctuary for Barred Owl Notecard

$3.00$24.00

Sanctuary for Barred Owl   From its beginnings as a seed, through its life as seedling, sapling, and then full-grown tree, a mature Sugar Maple (Acer sacchurum) in the mixed hardwood forests of the Northeast will often represent 100 or more years of growth. In those years, the Maple will have found itself an important…

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Screech Owl Lokta Card Acorn Designs

Screech Owl Lokta Card

$5.00$8.00

Screech Owl   The Screech Owl is a small owl with ear tufts and camouflage coloring; color varies from grey to brown to rust.  This owl ranges throughout much of North America into central Mexico, preferring woodlands and farm groves. Despite their small size, screech owls have no problem dispatching creatures as large as rats…

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Silence Notecard

Silence Journal

$29.00

Silence Each of us needs a place to go where we can hear our innermost thoughts. It is only in a place that gives us silence and beauty that an answer will come to our most begging questions about life, God and love. Only in a quiet place can our spirits be nourished and spoken…

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Spring Peepers Notecard

Spring Peepers Journal

$29.00

The Spring Peeper is a widespread and familiar species of frog, known primarily for its loud and piercing call, a repeated peep! peep! peep! given by males from ponds and pools during the spring breeding season. Distant choruses sound like magical sleigh bells, but at close range the same calls hurt one’s ears. Although producing…

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Spring Peepers Lokta Card Acorn Designs

Spring Peepers Lokta Card

$5.00$8.00

The Spring Peeper is a widespread and familiar species of frog, known primarily for its loud and piercing call, a repeated peep! peep! peep! given by males from ponds and pools during the spring breeding season. Distant choruses sound like magical sleighbells, but at close range the same calls hurt one’s ears. Although producing an…

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Spring Peepers Notecard Acorn Designs

Spring Peepers Notecard

$3.00$24.00

The Spring Peeper is a widespread and familiar species of frog, known primarily for its loud and piercing call, a repeated peep! peep! peep! given by males from ponds and pools during the spring breeding season. Distant choruses sound like magical sleigh bells, but at close range the same calls hurt one’s ears. Although producing…

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PJ03

Spring Peepers Small Journal

$20.00

The Spring Peeper is a widespread and familiar species of frog, known primarily for its loud and piercing call, a repeated peep! peep! peep! given by males from ponds and pools during the spring breeding season. Distant choruses sound like magical sleighbells, but at close range the same calls hurt one’s ears. Although producing an…

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Squirrel Lokta Card Acorn Designs

Squirrel Lokta Card

$5.00$8.00

Squirrel   The grey squirrel is a prolific and adaptable tree squirrel native to the eastern and Midwestern US and southern portions of Canada.  They generally construct their dens upon large tree branches as well as the hollow trunks of trees.  They prefer oak-hickory forests as they enjoy acorns and a wide variety of other…

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PJ131

Squirrel Small Journal

$20.00

Squirrel The grey squirrel is a prolific and adaptable tree squirrel native to the eastern and Midwestern US and southern portions of Canada.  They generally construct their dens upon large tree branches as well as the hollow trunks of trees.  They prefer oak-hickory forests as they enjoy acorns and a wide variety of other nuts.…

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Summertime Cows Notecard Acorn Designs

Summertime Cows Notecard

$3.00$24.00

What Cows Can Teach Us Cloven hoofed, often spotted, cows are watchful, with tough tongues and blunt teeth perfectly suited to tearing plants off close to the ground.  They are ruminants, able to swallow mouthfuls of vegetation whole, chewing it later, in a quiet moment, when it comes up again.  Their stomachs have 4 compartments,…

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