Original Art by: Susan Sanderson

Title: Railroad Repair Gang
Location: Brewery Becker
500 E Main St.

Susan Sanderson is a local artist specializing in painted works using acrylics, watercolor, pastel, and mixed drawing media. She believes artwork has a responsibility to engage, entertain, and educate the viewer on many diverse levels. Her background in mechanical drafting and design were well suited for the hand car silhouette. Photos taken working hand cars would include a civil engineer, train engineer, local politicians, and almost always children. Workers could be out for the day with many tools repairing track and would carry a barrel of water and lunch. Images of the people in this piece are blended from early Brighton photographs. The hand car is a blended image from many photographs from the late 1800’s. The medium for the original drawing is water-based gouache on watercolor board. Gouache was chosen because the opaque color is very lively and does not ‘wash-out’ during the reproduction process.

Originally from Carrollton, MI, she studied painting at the Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI. She went on to study art at Delta College, University Center, MI and the University of Michigan, Stamps School of Art, Ann Arbor, MI. Her art work ranges in size from very small to over 180’ and she has shown her work at art fairs and in galleries in Saginaw, Ann Arbor, and Southeast Michigan. She is a member of the Brighton Art Guild and works as a Senior Technical Writer.