By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — Versatility is artist Susan Payne’s “game.” Exhibiting her work the week of June 22-28 as one of the Artists in Residence at Edgewood Cottage in Blowing Rock, Payne showed off a wide range of creative abilities, from painting landscapes to quilting. Get to know her and that versatility is not at all surprising.

“I taught art for 20 years in the Virginia Beach public school system, then when my husband got transferred to Charlotte I taught another 20 years in the school system there,” Payne said in a sit-down with Blowing Rock News. “While in Charlotte, I also worked at the Mint Museum of Art, running their summer camp programs and teaching art classes throughout the summer. When we retired, we moved to Boone because my daughter was going to App State and we were attracted to the area, with all the mountains and forests. I could not wait to start painting up here. I met some ladies that also painted and we would meet to paint, twice a week.”

Sometimes it is the scene, the color or the lighting…

Payne explained that with retirement and the move to the High Country, her passion for painting was reignited.

“The whole time I was teaching, over 40 years, I did not do much of my own art work,” she said. “So I enjoyed picking up the brush again.”

After a couple of years painting, Payne met some quilters and channeled her creative energies in that direction, too.

“I joined a quilt guild in Boone, working with sewing machines to piece the materials together.”

As for time management of her creativity, nobody does it better than Susan Payne.

“I paint in the spring, summer and fall,” she said with a smile. “In the winter, I am quilting. Recently, I started combining my drawing and painting in with the quilting. I’ll do a collage, like I used to do with kids, but instead of paper I use fabric. All of the mountain ridges and waterlines are done with a sewing machine. I will also paint on light fabric, then quilt it.”

Creating images with a sewing machine is a bit of a challenge and painting on fabric is very much different than painting on a typical artist’s canvas.

“Fabric is typically thinner, so you have to be careful how the paint spreads. I have to control the water,” said Payne of what quickly becomes a multi-disciplinary craft.

With the kids, there were all these unusual color combinations. I thought that was the most amazing thing, ever.

“I do studies in pencil, then the drawing details are with an ink pen. I use a special technique that allows the fabric to move through the sewing machine smoothly, but the needle only goes up and down,” she explained. “It doesn’t advance the fabric. So I physically have to manipulate the fabric to create a waterline. I am moving the fabric back and forth,” Payne explained.

So what drives Payne, the artist?

“Sometimes it is the scene, the color or the lighting. I respond to how the light is reflected in the water or against the water lilies in Bass Lake,” said Payne. “I really like to paint at sunset because I like the constant change in colors, especially in the high mountains and clouds.”

Payne admits to sometimes “pushing” colors — and the inspiration comes not from a mentor or teacher, but from an unlikely source.

“When I taught art, especially to little kids, I watched them combine colors, like purples with yellows. There were all these unusual color combinations and I just thought that was the most amazing thing, ever,” Payne recalled. “I was greatly influenced by the kids and have brought some of that (experimentation) to my art, too.”

Oh gosh, anywhere you turn around, even out my kitchen window, there is something to paint.

Payne said she found inspiration in the Impressionists because she like painting without black.

“I like combining colors to behave as black. I might paint with another dark value instead of black. I also liked the Post-Impressionists.”

Payne got her start in life, growing up in Suffolk, Virginia.

“It was the peanut capital of the world, at the time,” she said, with a chuckle. “Everywhere you went, you could smell peanuts.”

Payne’s college days were spent as an undergraduate at Longwood College, an all-girls school, then pursued graduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond. The Virginia Beach school system also required another level of certification for administration, which she obtained at Norfolk State.

Asked what she thought about Blowing Rock and the High Country as an artist’s platform, Payne smiled broadly.

“Oh gosh, anywhere you turn around, even out my kitchen window, there is something to paint. I’ll see a fox running through the yard. The deer are constantly eating my flowers. And so many birds,” said Payne. “I love the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum and attend a lot their programs. I am inspired by their exhibits and the various readings, as well as the music from time to time.”

Expressive. Creative. Talented. Versatile. Those are among the adjectives to describe Susan Payne and her artistic works.

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