Ron Suchiu

Local Artist Known World-Wide for His Paintings

Story by Fred Groves
Photography by John Liviero

If Ron Suchiu was a musician, he would be considered a rock star. A well established and accomplished painter, ironically Suchiu also has a unique connection with superstars from the entertainment business.

Amongst those he has rubbed elbows with, Eric Burdon and Dan Aykroyd. His work has been acknowledged, accepted and admired by Queen Elizabeth II, Dr. Jane Goodall and President Nelson Mandela.

Name dropping and boasting is not what makes this painter tick. From his modest studio, in an industrial district of small-town Essex, Ontario, Suchiu, by his own admission is at the peak of his ability.

“My mother thought that I would be a famous artist someday,” says Suchiu a few feet away from his easel. “A week before she died, she said my art was not for me and that I have to understand that.”

Those who examine his work closely, those without any understanding of brush strokes, style, or technique, know that there is something special about the paintings of Ron Suchiu.

Steps in which he has taken to reach the pinnacle, the plateau of which he now works from is not complicated.

By the age of 10, he had sold his first painting.

“It was a portrait of a little girl. It was for a lady my father worked with. She paid me what he got paid in a week for.”

Over 65 years ago, he would wander out onto his family’s property in LaSalle which, at the time measured nearly eight acres, and spend hours looking skyward.

“I raised myself. We had about eight acres. I would wander off and stare up at the sky, it was so intriguing.”

As much as the engaging details of clouds and sunshine mesmerized him, Suchiu is quite precise when he recalls when his talent started to form.

“Our internet back then was the Encyclopedia Britanica and I used to wander through the pages with the fish and stuff. One day I tripped across da Vinci.”

As Suchiu speaks about his childhood fascination of painting, he centres on an exact moment. The time when he was fixated on one single line in da Vinci’s beard. That is when he wanted to challenge himself to duplicate such preciseness. Suchiu was six years old at the time.

“I realized at a young age, I wasn’t creating anything new.”

Suchiu has not duplicated any other painter’s work, instead he has blended their mastery into his own and come up with a sort of fusion that has been admired worldwide.

He has taken the technique and studied the works of da Vinci, Salvador Dali and Norman Rockwell, all different styles and brought them together; they have been more than an influence. The greats that have come before him were his mentors.

“By the time I was in high school, I realized I could take the different artists and use it to my benefit. I am the only artist I know who can take the energy from others.”

Suchiu has described his work in the forms of realism, surrealism and his most recent, and the one he himself created and is paying strict attention to—synergy art.

“Synergy is the most powerful word in the Universe,” he explains. “When you need to get something done, my idea and your ideas become more than two ideas.”

Asked to elaborate, he uses one example of collaborating with actor/comedian/musician Dan Aykroyd.

On a recent visit to Aykroyd’s home in Kingston, Ontario, the painter brought along a canvas which he put on Aykroyd’s table. The same table that the film Ghostbuster was written on. Suchiu took the brush and colours and began to create, the entertainer then put his hand to the piece.

The combination and collaboration are what he refers to as synergy art. “It’s so we can blend our energies together.”

Several prints of Aykroyd, including one of him sitting on a motorcycle are all part of the creations in the Suchiu’s Essex studio/gallery.

Perhaps the biggest mystery about Suchiu is just how his work has graced the Vatican, the U.S. Embassy and is seen in the collections of celebrities and royal families.

He admits to having a somewhat anonymous friend who has no problem about reaching out to those that many may thought were unreachable.

The late Queen Elizabeth II for example had been offered many gifts over her time as Monarch and through Canada’s Governor General, she received from Suchiu a print of the famous racehorse Man of War.

“We knew that was the gift she’d receive because she had 16 horses that were blood lined from Man of War.”

And then there is the story of the print that made its way all the way to the library of the Vatican in Rome.

Suchiu recalls how the Curator of the Vatican Library was in Windsor touring Assumption Church, which the local artist had painted. A letter with 23,000 signatures from Catholic elementary school students helped pave the way for the print of the church.

“The curator sent me a letter saying you’ll be glad to know it (print) sits proudly in my office.”

Churches, horses, famous people—all have been immortalized by Suchiu.

He has painted the long-gone Windsor Checker Flag Raceway, and the Blue Nose, in honour of Canada’s most famous ship. Then there is a print simply titled ‘The Titanic’ which is signed by a survivor.

Suchiu’s love of aviation is seen everywhere in his gallery including the titled ‘Together As One’ which depicts this country’s acrobatic air team the Snowbirds. 

On his own website it is written that ‘he weaves emotions into his paintings with color, reflections and light. It is also visual depth that draws an admirer’s eye. For example, the piece titled Barn Sale is full of detail.

At 71, he is by no means slowing down but rather, it seems he has hit his stride and his latest project, one that he has never done before, a book. Called “The Wizard of Art”, it is a collection of not only his paintings, but Suchiu has written a description of each piece along with many exciting and surreal celebrity stories that are related to them. A large format, signed and numbered 1st edition of the book will be released later this year.

No matter where you look in Suchiu’s gallery you can see famous people and places and events.

But, as the artist bluntly says, “if your ego doesn’t fit my canvas, I can’t paint you.”

While his wife Colleen has, at times referred to Suchiu as ‘quirky’, for the thousands of collectors in Windsor-Essex and the over 60 countries where his work now hangs, it is safe to refer to him as a masterful genius.