Sue Bullock: from helicopters to oils

By Corin Blust
Sun contributor
When Sue Bullock was five years old, she opened up an art book in the basement of the community church and decided she wanted to be a painter.
“It just clicked, I realized that people painted, they actually did that kind of thing, it amazed me and I realized that it was something I wanted to do,” Sue recounts.
Sue has been doing something artistic ever since. In grade school she found her mother’s sketches of horses and copied them. Sue drew helicopters while she was in the Army and then went on to work with stained glass for 20 years. Throughout all of this time, though, her true goal was to become an oil painter.

“My dream was always to oil paint, and every time I tried it, it was a mess. It was like ‘oh this is awful!’ so I quit,” Sue remembers.
One long cold winter about two years ago, Her boyfriend, Nello Valentine, urged her to paint again. So she got out her oil paints and painted a Jack in the Pulpit.
“It turned out. And it was like the first one. Something clicked, after all those years of attempting to do it and it just turning out yuck, it finally clicked for me two years ago, and it just kind of took off.”
Sue’s work is reminiscent of Hopper. She focuses primarily on the old abandoned farmhouses and barns at Port Oneida and landscapes around Leelanau County.
“My houses have a kind of Hopperesque feel, with the quiet house scenes … I love the landscapes in the area. I try to find mood, little nooks and crannies, and little obscure ways of looking at things.”
Even though Sue has only been seriously oil painting for two years, her work has a tranquil feel, and her paintings seem to glow as if lit from within. She taught herself her technique by copying the work of people she admires.
“I really like to try and make the glow, I love the glow … I think I kind of collected all this stuff from other people, tried to copy their paintings, and then it’s slowly merging into my own way of doing things. And I’m teaching myself in that way. It’s working for me.”
Sue has her work at three galleries around the area this year.
“I didn’t know if anybody would ever take my work, it was scary. I walked in and saw Vicki at the Secret Garden in Empire, and she liked my work, so I had it in there last year and it was amazing. I couldn’t keep up with it. Now this year I’m at three galleries, The Secret Garden, Glen Lake Artists’ gallery (in Glen Arbor), and I’ve got a few of my little trees over at Gallery 50 over in Traverse City.”
If you would like to contact Sue Bullock, call (231) 228-4663.