By Sally Quale

The startling sight of a chicken house—with wheels and resident
chickens—on the front lawn of the library should entice at least a few more
persons inside for the opening reception and exhibition of Susie Crofut’s
watercolors that will take place on Sunday, September 7 from 4 – 6 p.m.
Crofut last exhibited at the library in 2005. Despite schooling at Wellesley
College, Columbia University and the University of Munich, she had no
formal training in the arts. She had some experience with graphic design,
having illustrated a children’s songbook, “The Moon on One Hand,” an
American Library Association Notable Book, with music composed by her
husband Bill Crofut, who died in the late 1990’s.
Crofut’s passion for watercolors ignited while watching her eldest
daughter’s experience in art school. Inspired to pursue her own gifts, Crofut
eventually began exhibiting and selling her work.
Painting is a “passion” for her, she says, “It makes one really see things, it is
totally absorbing and exciting, and it involves problem-solving.” She lists
her favorite subjects as “the things around me in my daily life—domestic
animals, flowers, vegetables, fruit.”
All of these things surround her on her bounteous farm in Sandisfield where
she and her husband first settled in the 1970’s. Today, their three children
and five grandchildren all live nearby. Her studio inhabits a barn with a large
northwest window overlooking the fields. Sometimes she paints from
sketches or photographs, but not en plein air, being a watercolorist in the
main. Most of her paintings are “fairly big” (about 3’x4’), and primarily
close-ups. A recent commission of 2 8’ x 6’ panels will grace the set of a
production of Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milkwood” in Chatham, N.Y.

Over the years, Crofut has been a staunch supporter of the community arts,
with a particular devotion to the Sandisfield Art Center, as well as to the
acting career of her husband Ben Luxon, whom she married in 2002.
As for the “chickenmobile,” as she calls it, its creation was a matter of
function before form, enabling her to move her brood around the cow field
to graze and fertilize throughout the warm months. During its construction
she decided to make it a work of art as well. She says it is not for sale, and
she is taking no commissions.

Susie Crofut with her “chickenmobile,” a whimsical interpretation of farm machinery.