A native New Yorker, Fran Sutherland is a painter, teacher, and restorer of historic homes. She moved to the Hudson Valley in 1958 and earned a B.S. and M.S. at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Sutherland's creative work has been strongly influenced by Eastern aesthetics, as well as her enjoyment of the Hudson Valley landscape and her thirty-year career as an art teacher at New Paltz High School. The artist continues to teach privately and is an active member of the Woodstock Artists Association.