A Master of Abstract: Sue Tarrant

HARLINGEN — They’re bright and colorful paintings. Sometimes, they are textured.

But, most of the time, it is difficult to determine where the idea for the painting came from.

Brownsville’s Sue Tarrant loves creating abstract works and has been an artist most of her life.

Tomorrow night, her recent and some past works will be on display at the Harlingen Art Forum.

She is the featured artist of the month and her works will be on display through the first three weeks of September.

Her opening reception is tomorrow night from 7 to 9 p.m. and will include refreshments.

“Most of my ideas are floral, but they come from anywhere,” Tarrant said. “I have taken pieces from still lifes in the classroom. I take part of it and blow it up and create a new design out of it. There are lots and lots of different things. Usually, they are abstracted and sometimes you can tell what they are and sometimes you have no idea.”

Some of her works are based on the Century Plant. Maybe those who see her art will be able to tell which ones those are … maybe not.

“I have always been into abstract,” she said.

Tarrant is a former art teacher in Brownsville for 32 years.

After retiring in 2005, she became an artist herself.

Her most recent endeavor is using sponges to create works of art. She has long enjoyed the textures that can be created with acrylics

She worked with that medium back in high school when they were becoming popular.

However, the use of sponges has evolved for Tarrant.

“A lot of things I did in college were hard edge acrylic where you take canvas and straight edges,” she said.

Just like most artists, they go through stages of learning and creating.

Tarrant did. That’s when she used sawdust in her work as sort of a tribute to her father who built homes.

“That resulted in a lot of sawdust being around,” she said.

“I haven’t done one of those in a while,” she said. “Maybe I will take another look at that.”

She said there are many ways to give acrylic some texture. That includes the sawdust and sand.

“Sawdust is interesting — it just creates a wonderful texture on the canvas,” she said.

Tarrant is multiskilled. She also dabbles in pewter and jewelry.

Originally from Indiana, she attended school as an art education major. Between her junior and senior year, her family moved to the Valley.

Her father was a commercial contractor who came down to the Valley to build spec houses. That was in the early 1970s and he built homes in Rancho Viejo and Brownsville Country Club among many other areas.

Most recently, in May, Tarrant received quite an honor back in Kentucky where she attended high school.

Tarrant was one of six named as an outstanding alumni at Villa Madonna Academy. She was chosen for her efforts in art education.