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Susan Thompson is shy about discussing her artwork. Although her pride is obvious, she is not used to being in the spotlight.

"I don't talk very well about my art," Thompson said.

But lately, she has found more people are interested in her art than ever before.

Thompson's abstract art collection, entitled "Fortuitous Instinct," is on display at the Comb Goddess hair salon on 11th Street.

To Thompson's delight, five of her 28 pieces sold during her opening at the salon, June 13. Others have since been earmarked for buyers.

"I haven't taken advantage of showing too much in Steamboat," said Thompson, a New York native.

Two years ago, she was laid off from her job at Riverhouse Editions, a printmaking studio. But she said it came at the right time; she was ready to focus on her art.

"All my work was going into creating art for other people," she said.

After graduating in 1985 from an art school in Massachusetts, Thompson said it was difficult to find time for her passion.

"It's been a struggle trying to create art," she said.

But for nearly two years, that is what she has been doing.

Thompson won a $500 fellowship from the Mixed Media Painting School of Steamboat Springs last year. With it, she was able to travel to Kingston, N.Y., where she became familiar with a new form of art media that she has grown to love.

Encaustic painting involves painting with beeswax that has been mixed with a powdered dye. The finished piece is fused together with a heat gun.

Since learning about encaustic painting, it has become Thompson's favorite method.

"It changed everything for me," she said.

She enjoys the process, which she describes as "putting together textures by chance with an unconscious intuitive impulse."

Besides the encaustic paint, Thompson includes in her multimedia pieces children's watercolors, lists her husband made and pictures from magazines.

Thompson explained that she likes the dichotomy certain combinations can make, such as including a children's drawing in a collage with harsh-looking sand paper.

"It's the relationship of how things happen," she said.

Not all of her pieces are for sale, but Thompson said even among those that are, it is sometimes difficult to let go.

"You get kind of attached because it's so personal," she said. But she knows that letting go and moving on is part of being an artist, she said.

"I'm just sort of stepping out," she said. "I'm trying to emerge as an artist."