Susan Fraser was born and educated in the United States, where she worked at private greenhouses, botanical gardens and microbiology labs. Upon graduating she worked at the microbiology lab at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

In 1983 she hitch-hiked around Europe touring galleries, museums and churches. Her art career began while living in Germany from 1984 to 1988. In 1988 she immigrated to Canada and painted commission work based on the abundant migratory waterfowl of the Ontario flyways. A year on Vancouver Island afforded opportunities to paint Orcas and to experience the west coast art scene.

Susan now resides in the Ottawa Valley, nestled between the Ottawa River and Algonquin Park where she is frequently visited by deer, owls, wolves and black bear on her acreage.

Susan’s charcoal drawings are a result of life long study of nature and photography which capture the deer in their natural state. The most intimate poses are captured without awareness of a human presence.

Choosing to draw a head and shoulder portrait reveals their state of emotion through their eyes and facial expressions. Susan has an amazing touch for textures, catching the velvet of the deer’s coat and the shine of the eye.

The originals are done on toned (colored) paper providing both the background and the medium tone of the subject. The shading and highlights are done with black and white charcoal respectively. Many layers of varying hardness of charcoal are applied, blended and lifted with an eraser to provide a depth of texture to the fur.

These are Giclée (pronounced ‘jee-clay’) prints in Limited Editions. The original images have been digitally printed onto Concord Fine Art Rag paper made from 100% cotton which is pH neutral and meets Archival Standards. The print permanence has been tested to exceed 120 years making the prints archival. Susan titles and signs each print before framing it.