Sueellen Ross

Who is Sueellen Ross?

Sueellen Ross is an American painter who is most famous for her popular cat and dog paintings. Sueellen Ross began Drawing animals as soon as she could hold a pencil and never stopped. “I was raised as a city kid, and much as I wanted to be around bigger animals, I just couldn’t convince my parents to have a goat in the backyard”, says Ross. Consequently, “Most of the animals and birds I portray have adapted to city life or park life.” Her love for animals and their distinct personalities is apparent in every work of art she creates. Acclaimed for the strong design and subtle wit in both her mixed-media paintings and hand-colored etchings of cats and birds, Sueellen never quits thinking about art “because I have too many ideas and too little time”. She spends most of each day working in her Seattle studio, explaining: “When I am drawing I am happy. And when an idea comes to me, I get a new rush of adrenaline”. It was this adrenaline and her discovery of the etching process that necessitated her commitment to the life of an artist. She credits the etching process for honing her abilities of using texture, line and color for detail, but she’s recently given more and more attention to one-of-a-kind mixed-media paintings of cats, dogs, birds and wildlife. She finds that kind of work “more fun and more creative on a daily basis”. She says her strengths as an artist “come from my love of my subjects and my ability to draw”. Her paintings and original intaglio prints have been exhibited in shows from Alaska to Florida and she has numerous credits and awards to her name. Sueellen is particularly proud of her work that has been included in shows like “Birds in Art” at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson At Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, and “Arts for the Parks” at the National Park Foundation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree and did postgraduate work in art and drama at the University of California, Berkeley before attending the School of Visual Arts in New York. She has lived in and travelled to such far-flung locales as Geneva, Guadalajara, San Juan and Key West and frequently draws from the inspiration the animals in that region have given her.