Susan Boulet was born in Brazil of English parents who had emigrated there from South Africa. Her early childhood was spent on a large cattle ranch which allowed her great freedom and where she first developed the love of fairy tales and fantasy that would later be revealed in her paintings. She was educated in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janiero, and later in Switzerland. It was here that she began her training as an artist. She came to the United States in 1967, but always retained a great love for the land and people of Brazil.
Susan Boulet’s art has had a profound influence on many people. She was a prolific artist whose themes ranged from portrayals of medieval figures and fantasy characters in her early work to goddesses and shaman figures in more recent images. Working principally in oil pastel, inks and occasionally pencil, she developed a distinctive personal style characterized by the use of color applied in layers from which dream-like forms emerged. Susan Boulet drew her inspiration from a wide variety of sources: mythology and poetry, Jungian psychology and worldwide spiritual traditions, as well as a deep love of animals and the natural world. Underlying her work is a spiritual quality and a universality which strikes a chord in people from many walks of life. Her paintings have been widely reproduced and are held in collections around the world. Published works include Shaman: The Paintings of Susan Seddon Boulet (1989), and The Goddess Paintings (1994), both published by Pomegranate Artbooks in Rohnert Park.
The inspiration that people drew from Susan Boulet’s work was often heightened by their meeting her in person. She loved to be present when her paintings were shown and those who met her, however briefly, were invariably touched by her empathy, gentleness, modesty and charm. Her ability to listen and make personal connections won her innumerable admirers. Indeed, one of her greatest challenges was to balance her artist’s need for solitude with her love of friends. At a recent gathering in her honor a large number of people paid tribute to her generosity, sense of humor and the profound influence her art had exerted upon their lives. Susan Seddon Boulet was married to Larry Boulet who died in 1980. She is survived by a son, Eric, and a brother, Patrick Seddon, of Oakland, California, and her step-mother, Naide Seddon, and a brother, Ernani Seddon, of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
