Suzanne Lemieux Wilson

With her early years in proximity to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Saturday classes in oil painting and ceramics, and summers spent near the Rockport art colony, it never occurred to Suzanne Lemieux Wilson that there could be Life without Art in it!

She studied at Boston University and London, worked at Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut and held various graphic arts, illustration and teaching positions. Once she worked in the style of early American primitive itinerant painters where another artist rendered the figures and she added the portrait heads, a big hit when New England interior designers were rehabilitating colonial homes. Throughout these years there was the excitement of entering and exhibiting art in New York City and elsewhere: The National Arts Club, Allied Artists, Lever House, Womanart Gallery, Riverside Church, Silvermine Guild, and many others, including London and Paris.

Suzanne received many awards and was named a Master Pastelist by the Pastel Society of America and was recognized by Who's Who in American Art. When it was discovered that her lyrical style translated into animation design, she devoted her talent to conceptual art. She was Design Consultant for Walt Disney Studios. At Fox Animation she painted the Royal Portrait and the Palace Murals in Twentieth Century Fox’s animated feature film, Anastasia. The characters magically emerge from the paintings and dance.

Her marriage to Rowland B. Wilson, famed cartoonist and illustrator, was a study in teamwork. They studied art and architecture on most vacations, including planning a trip around Vermeer’s paintings. Rowland built displays for her Laguna Beach exhibitions, assisted with framing and hanging, and was a constant source of inspiration and a wellspring of technical knowhow. Suzanne helped to write cartoon captions, did the bookkeeping, manned the office, created brochures and brainstormed his many creative endeavors. In an official capacity at Sullivan Bluth Studio in Ireland, she designed inspirational art to his specifications as Production Designer. This collaboration was a great introduction to their later years when Rowland would write and draw his cartoon novels and Suzanne developed them in a process akin to directing animated features, entailing scanning, developing color model, backgrounds, continuity, atmosphere, color keying, digital painting and finally printing and presentation.

Rowland had recorded and guarded his techniques in order to avoid having to start from scratch when a new project deadline came in. He had always planned to create a how-to book after retirement. Instead he spent all his remaining time on his beloved Pirate Series, starring Captain Jack Fyrelock Pistol, Former Pirate and Rich Man, a character he perfected over 25 years. Captain Pistol’s adventures spanned the classic genres: swashbuckler, romantic comedy, foreign spy intrigue, Western, gothic horror and science fiction.

Suzanne consolidated the many notebooks of practical tips and techniques into Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets. A bonus is the inclusion of his personal pictorial flow charts of foolproof step by step procedures. Later, she adapted Captain Pistol’s Paradise into various formats for an ever-changing publishing industry.