Still lives and the art of literary portraiture: A conversation with Susan vreeland

Susan Vreeland is the best-selling author of three art-related novels, and Life Studies, a new story collection. Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Vreeland’s first published novel, moves backwards in time to retrace the history of a fictitious painting by Vermeer. The Passion of Artemisia re-creates the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, a bold woman artist of the Italian Renaissance. The Forest Lover tells the story of Emily Carr, one of British Columbia’s most prominent painters. As in the novels, in the recently published story collection, Life Studies, art is again Vreeland’s focus. This time, however, she approaches art and artists from more peripheral perspectives. Like the painters she admires, Susan Vreeland is a consummate artist. On a warm day in June 2004, I had the pleasure of talking with her about her own sense of craft.