Yoncalla artist Susan Applegate is widely recognized as a painter, muralist, and illustrator whose work reflects a lifelong love of nature. Many of her paintings are inspired by the Yoncalla ranch where she grew up and continues to live today. Her deep connection to the land is evident not only in her canvases but also in the many murals she has created across Lane and Douglas counties. At the Douglas County Museum, her mural depicts the old-growth forest as it might have appeared when David Douglas explored the area in the early 1800s. On Main Street in Roseburg, another mural honors the pioneers who traveled the Applegate Trail.

A descendant of Charles Applegate, one of Yoncalla’s founders, Susan carries forward a family legacy deeply tied to Southern Oregon’s history. Her other public works can be found at the Lane County Juvenile Justice Center, Elkton Charter Elementary School’s kindergarten room, the Drain post office, and Myrtle Creek City Hall.

In 2019, Applegate was among 45 artists featured in the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art exhibition Visual Magic, which celebrated creative pioneers who began their artistic journeys in Oregon during the 1960s and 1970s. For Escape to the Forest, she presented paintings of the woods surrounding her home—works that delve into the emotional and spiritual essence of the forest. A footpath winds through her compositions toward a spring that has sustained her family for generations, while simplified forms and monumental shapes evoke renewal and regeneration. As Applegate describes it, “It is the forest of my interior landscape that I am painting.”

Susan standing by a painting at an exhibit at the Springfield Museum of the Skookum paintings. The exhibit was titled: Growing Up With the Country. These were paintings that served as illustrations for Shannon Applegate's book, Skookum: An Oregon Pioneer Family's History and Lore.

A photograph of Susan sketching the landscape on a cliff above the Umpqua River.  

Visitors to her website encounter both new works and pieces from throughout her career. The unifying thread in all her art is the natural landscape—sometimes rendered as portraiture, sometimes as pure form, and often as a metaphor for human experience.