Suzanne Onodera has a strong connection to the landscapes in Northern California where she grew up and spent most of her adult years. Craggy coastlines, undulating mountain ranges, drifting fog banks, fire-charred hillsides, and the pools and rivers stricken by drought all find their way into her work. Although she is inspired by land, place, and nature, all of her imagery is invented. It is detached from any historical or specific link to time or place. Ultimately, this work is about transcendental beauty and connectivity between humans and nature, and the self and the sublime.
Onodera works to create the mood on her canvases through the subtle layering of various shades lending the works a sense of depth and atmosphere.
Suzanne Onodera attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for two years and finished her BFA in painting, with High Distinction at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA.
These paintings - although traditional landscapes on many levels - are more mood driven personal examinations abstracted from nature. My inspirations are derived by the subtleties in weather, climate and atmosphere that evoke sensations and memories within me. Devoid of any man-made elements, they are solitary escapes, providing a transcendental experience into a floating world where society and civilization are eerily absent. These landscape abstractions do not exist in the past, present or future nor are they literal depictions of a particular place or historical reference.
It is the ambiguity in these environments that is intriguing to me and drives this body of work.