Stopping to Look — Pastel on Paper, 12 x 18
Framed 19 x 25 in Custom Black Wood

Here’s Stopping to Look, one of Dad’s pastels that feels almost like taking a breath outdoors. When I pull this one out of the archive, the first thing that hits me is the light—how he manages to make late-day color feel both calm and electric at the same time. The greens and violets in the shadows, that burst of warm yellow catching the house in the background, and the soft sky washing over everything… it’s classic Bill Suttles atmosphere.

What I love is how the tree in the foreground acts like a pause button. It’s rooted, slightly leaning, full of gesture—and it feels exactly like those moments when you stop the car or your walk because something in the landscape shifts just enough to make you pay attention. Dad always says he paints “the feeling of a place more than the place itself,” and this piece is a perfect example of that.

Framed in a clean black wood moulding, it has a presence that makes the colors even stronger. It’s one of those works where the more you look, the more the movement inside it starts to reveal itself.