THE PURE JOY OF SELF-EXPRESSION

Overcoming her fears and doubt, painter Susan Klavohn Bryant has found a voice and audience for her art

by LIESEL SCHMIDT / photography by HOLGER OBENAUS

The portrait of carl sandburg that susan Klavohn Bryant painted at the request of her high school English teacher, as amateur as it might have been at the time, was the first of many paintings that have hung in pride of place. And, since she became a professional artist in 2017, those paintings have continuously shown the talent that was burgeoning all the way back in her high school days.

“I always loved drawing and painting portraits, so it was exciting to be the one chosen to do the artwork,” Bryant recalls of the painting of the famed poet and journalist, which hung in her teacher’s classroom for years. “I was artistic as a young child and was fortunate enough to receive some instruction from my grandmother, who was an artist, to guide me and sharpen my skills. When I started college at UNC-Greensboro as a science major, it wasn’t long before I switched my major to art education—my mother was insistent on it being art education rather than simply being an art major. I didn’t really want to teach art at the time.”

Still, even with her degree in art education, Bryant did not pursue a career in art. Instead, she became a Realtor and spent many years in the real estate industry, satisfying her need to be creative by capturing homes, landscapes, wildlife and other subjects through photography with hopes of eventually returning to painting. Now, she balances a career in real estate with her pursuit of art, creating paintings that capture the scenery and people of the Charleston area with energy, color and expressive qualities that make her work captivating and unique.

“I finally started painting again in 2016 and now paint almost every day,” she says. “It wasn’t easy overcoming my doubts and fears enough to join art guilds and start showing my work in art shows and galleries, but when my work immediately started selling, overcoming all that trepidation proved to be worthwhile.”

Through acrylics, oils and mixed media, Bryant paints a range of subjects that include landscapes, still life, expressive portraiture and abstracts in a style self-described as “more expressionistic than realistic.” Seven years after she returned to painting, Bryant is still relatively new to the artist community, but her undeniable ability has given her distinction. Her talent, coupled with her background in art education, places her in a unique position to help others learn to paint and inspire established artists to try new techniques or subjects.

“Life is a funny thing sometimes. My success as an artist is no doubt due to the fact that when I paint, I am painting for myself without regard to the restraints or rules that so many artists follow,” says Bryant, who paints in the studio she built behind her home in Mount Pleasant. “My work is expressive— and that expression is my reason for painting in the first place. I paint for the pure joy of creating and expressing myself, which seems to come through in my paintings. People see and feel that, and it makes them appreciate my paintings even more.

“Art is important to me—whether I’m looking at works by other artists or creating them myself—as a means of expression or a way to view the world around me through what is ultimately a shared experience. Because of that, I am inspired by color, nature, music, dance and pretty much everything around me. I paint for relaxation and my own joy, so there are no limitations regarding my exploration of art, and I enjoy teaching others to paint for fun and relaxation.”

Bryant has served as past president of the Mount Pleasant Artists Guild and is involved with the Charleston Artist Guild Pet Helpers project. She also assisted in the development of other area galleries, and she is currently a member of the Charleston Artist Guild as well as the Seacoast Artists Guild in Myrtle Beach. Her work is represented by the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery and is being shown at the Mount Pleasant Town Hall and Everything Home Charleston in Mount Pleasant. She recently opened a solo show, Abstract Expressions, at the new Serendipity Labs building in Summerville/Nexton that will hang for a year and is open to the public.

“Currently, my favorite piece is the large abstract titled Secret Garden that I painted for the abstract show at Serendipity Labs,” she notes. Measuring 36 by 48 inches, the acrylic on canvas painting reminds Bryant of the beautiful rose pergola at the house next to her grandmother’s home in Arkansas. “All the ladies in town had their photographs taken when the roses were in full bloom.” *

Liesel Schmidt lives in Navarre, Florida, and works as a freelance writer for local and regional magazines. She is also a web content writer and book editor. Follow her on Twitter at @laswrites or download her novels, Coming Home to You, The Secret of Us and Life Without You, at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Stopping Time

Photographer Ivo Kerssemakers invites viewers to press pause with photos that capture perfect stillness

by LESLIE J. THOMPSON

In a world that is ever in motion , tranquility is a precious commodity. Cars whiz by on city streets. Shoppers fill sidewalks and retail stores, bantering enthusiastically about their finds. The hum of activity is present even along the Lowcountry coast, as birds traverse the skies and winds stir marsh grasses and streamers of Spanish moss hanging in tall oak trees. But Ivo Kerssemakers knows how to make the world stand still.

Using a long-exposure technique, the Dutch-born photographer quiets the dynamism of landscapes and cityscapes, bringing the constant motion to a gentle halt. His photographs capture an ethereal peace that soothes the soul in a world constantly abuzz.

“People should feel relaxed when they look at my work,” says Kerssemakers, who now calls Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, home. Ironically, the moving elements are what make the long exposure interesting, he notes, adding, “That can be water; that can be cloud movement.” Lighting also plays a key role, and Kerssemakers often shoots natural vistas in the early morning or just before sunset, giving the images a soft glow.

Using special lens filters and exposure times as long as four minutes likewise create a visual hush for cityscapes, which Kerssemakers prefers to shoot in black-and-white. “Cities are full of clutter, like people and traffic. With the long exposure, you can tune all those things out,” he says. Photographing historic buildings also takes the images outside of time, he notes. In the absence of visual cues, like people and cars, the picture may have been taken this year or a century ago.

His love of travel brought Kerssemakers from his native Netherlands to the United States in 1997, although he always had an affinity for American culture. “Instead of playing soccer as a kid, I played baseball. I always had an attraction to the United States,” says the fine art photographer.

He hopped the Atlantic at age 30, first landing in Tennessee, where he continued in his former profession as a software developer. A few years later, Kerssemakers made his way north to Upstate New York. “The winters were brutal. I don’t mind snow, but at some point, it needs to stop, and it seemed like it never stopped,” he quips. Fed up with freezing temperatures, he headed back down the East Coast, eventually settling in South Carolina. “I just drove south until I saw palm trees,” Kerssemakers says with a laugh.

The beauty of the shorelines surrounding Charleston provide continual inspiration for his fine art photography, a profession he chose to pursue full time in 2015. Since then, he has earned notoriety on both sides of the pond for his surrealist landscapes, which appear untouched by people.

“Some shots took me four hours to get the right four-minute

Georgetown space with nothing to interrupt the image,” Kerssemakers says. Although cityscapes are particularly tricky because a vehicle could make an unexpected stop center frame, he still enjoys frequent trips to London, Amsterdam and New York to photograph popular architectural attractions.

Closer to home, Kerssemakers recently captured a local landmark by photographing the University of South Carolina’s abandoned coastal research station on Pritchards Island before the building was leveled late last year. “I wanted to document that because it’s a piece of history,” the photographer says pensively. Like his other dreamlike landscapes, the images of the skeletal structure on an empty shoreline have a tranquil, otherworldly quality that invites the viewer into a place of quiet contemplation.

Kerssemakers’ fine art photography previously earned him first place at the Atalaya Arts & Crafts Festival in Huntington Beach State Park and an emerging artist grant at the Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Exhibition, where he will be exhibiting again this spring. To ensure his photographs stand the test of time, he produces archival images on canvas or pure fine art paper using a large-format printer. Canvas photographs also are sprayed with a protective coating and stretched on warp-resistant hardwood frames.

To view Kerssemakers’ work, visit the Lowcountry Artists Gallery in Charleston, the MISC-Everything gallery in Murrells Inlet, the Gallery at Sweetgrass in Isle of Palms or browse the images on his website. *

Leslie J. Thompson is a Dallas-based freelance writer with a passion for interior design and international travel. Read more of her work at lesliejthompson.com.

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