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Beth Surdut

Art for the mind and body at www.bethsurdut.com

Artist, designer and writer Beth Surdut utilizes a palette of personal experiences infused with the color and romance of world cultures. With a unique style that encompasses fine art and fine craft, her original paintings and wearable art are shown internationally in gallery and museum exhibitions. Custom garments for women and men are available by commission. Her studio provides: design services for hotels and private homes; product branding identity; and licensing for reproduction by manufacturers including textiles; Hawaiian shirts; women’s apparel and accessories; giftware and home goods.

Extended sojourns in Indonesia, the West Indies and Australia nurtured Beth’s relationship with the mysteries and nuances of nature. A recent move to the Gulf Coast of Florida, which she calls terra infirma, has sparked a new series of paintings and stories, Dragon Scales and Hurricanes: Harmonic Convergence, visual songs of color and stories of the wild and cultivated, where orchid growers, poets, songwriters and stargazing techies embellish a primal melody.

As a journalist and commentator she examines topics ranging from sewers to senators, and is noted for artists' profiles and art business articles. She has served as arts editor and feature writer, researched and produced Talking Life: Walter Harrod's Stories an oral history CD told by an 86-year old woodworker. National Public Radio aired her essays on diverse topics including a six-part series on the business of art. During her career, projects involving visual art and writing have received multiple grant support, notably from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Harvard Historical Society.

World traveler and adventurer with a tropical heart, Beth Surdut creates luminous art saturated with the extraordinary colors of environments real and imagined. Noted for combining rich jewel tones and fluid movement during a 10-year career designing and fabricating architectural art glass in the Washington, D.C. area, her studio garnered commissions for private and public spaces, including 24 windows in a Middle Eastern palace. A stained glass commission for an intimately delightful hotel in Key West, Florida introduced her to tropical color and form at the same time she began exploring another medium utilizing color and light.

In 1986 her expertise as a colorist led to experimenting and developing her recognizable style of painting on Chinese silk with Japanese brushes and French dyes. Her wearable art, first featured in the Washington Post, was soon exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery. Explorations in Jamaica and six years residing in Hawaii fostered large-scale paintings as well as extensive textile and product design internationally.  Commissions include designing and painting Celtic motifs for fashion icon Mary McFadden, and shaping product identity for Hawaiian resorts. Magazines feature Beth’s paintings on their covers in addition to interior illustration. Her hand-painted silk men’s Ultimate Aloha Shirts™ were highlighted in 2004 at the American Textile History Museum.

While a magical blend of color on silk remains the heart of this multi-faceted artist, technology offers multiple avenues for quality reproduction.   The Surdut Tropical Table Linen Collection debuted in 2004 at major museums and selected Bloomingdale stores. 

The Mermaids, a series of 12 limited edition fine art prints derived from the large original silk paintings, embodies the seductive enchantment of the sea.  Works of fiction melding sea legends and environmental issues are slated for release in 2006. The Mermaid’s Return may be found at www.bethsurdut.com/mermaids.htm.

Writing Samples

See the latest exhibitions and projects
http://www.bethsurdut.com/news.htm