Flo Sussell

Flo Sussell’s artistic talents became evident at a very young age. When her sixth grade teacher saw her drawings in class, that teacher encouraged Flo to continue on a path that would include art in her future. It was, fortunately for all of us, encouragement that Flo happily and earnestly heeded.

Flo graduated from Antioch Senior High in 1957, after which she took night classes at Long Beach City College to learn how to paint with oils. She also bought many “how to” art books and took several other workshops to enhance her knowledge in oils.

Thanks to showing her oil paintings and other artworks in a variety of venues, Flo has contracted to “paint” three different golf courses through the years: First Hole at Bear Valley Springs, Lake Havasu Golf Course, and the 13th Hole at Augusta, Georgia, home of the Masters.

In her early adulthood, when it was necessary to “go to work to earn a living,” Flo says she had to “put her oils aside,” but that never dimmed her desire to create. She found that colored pencils were an easy medium with “no set-up or clean up,” and she taught herself the techniques needed to master that art form. Working from the many photographs she’s taken through the years of traveling back and forth from Long Beach to Tehachapi, her drawings of oak trees, barns and barn doors are her favorites.

Flo has an eye for detail and has taken on a lot of commission work to do portraits of both people and animals in both oils and colored pencils, and the result has been many happy and satisfied customers.

Married to Jay Sussell for 49 years and currently living in Bear Valley Springs, Flo has two daughters, one granddaughter and one grandson, and a never-ending desire to keep creating art. She continues to enhance her art skills and learn new things every chance she gets by taking workshops and studios with other artists, and she still likes to pick up those “how to” books. Her latest artistic efforts are in pastels and watercolors and her innate talent .