After 50 years of painting, Suzanne P. Lamon is thrilled to see samples of her oil, watercolor and colored pencil sketch works from the past quarter-century being exhibited at the Jefferson County Historical Society’s Museum of Art and History.

On Saturday, Sept. 14, Lamon will lead an exclusive gallery tour of her canvases and other works in the museum, from 5-6 p.m., while recounting her creative journey, which started with her exposure to the experimental art scene of California’s Bay Area during the late 1960s.

“It was an exciting movement that taught me that art could be about what you felt and thought,” Lamon said. “It all felt so alive.”

Although Lamon diligently applied herself to her artistic studies throughout her schooling, “because I wanted to make sure I had my techniques down pat,” it was one college professor whom she valued as a mentor who advised her that her artwork should be drawn from, and inspired by, her lived experiences.

“He told me to paint my life, but that just made me ask, ‘What’s my life?’” Lamon said. “That was when I realized I needed to go out and get a life. I’m not saying that to be glib.”

Lamon frequently follows lighthearted, self-effacing admissions with assurances that she’s not being dismissive of the seriousness or importance of the subjects at hand, but her emotional earnestness in person makes such qualifiers unnecessary.

Even as Lamon attended graduate school, she racked up a resume of working-class professions that could sustain a succession of memoirs in their own right, from waitressing and bartending to carpentry, log truck-driving, cattle-handling and assorted farm labor.

“I worked for a company that designed bicycle helmets in the 1990s,” Lamon said. “I did all these different jobs on the side, and they gave me a stronger sense of myself as an artist. When you’ve done hard jobs, it helps build your confidence, because by comparison, why shouldn’t you break a given artistic rule, or make a given artistic choice?”

Over the decades, Lamon admitted to returning to a few favorite artistic subjects, including natural, animals (horses and dogs in particular) and gardening (she’s cultivated gardens “my entire life”), but when asked if any recurring themes have animated her works, she had to consider the question before concluding that she feels strongly about “finding a way out of darkness.”

Lamon freely conceded she’s faced no shortage of darkness in her life, perhaps most notably when she survived soft tissue sarcoma and her husband leaving her concurrently, followed by the surgical removal of first her bicep muscle, then her entire arm.

“I have to admit, there were times when it was difficult to appreciate birds singing, or the beauty of flowers,” Lamon said. “But I remembered things like being a cowboy, when I had a cow on the end of my rope who was bigger than I was, and that sustained my confidence.”

The Jefferson County Historical Society’s Museum of Art and History includes a few pieces, barely more than a decade old, when Lamon experimented with a combination of watercolors and colored pencil sketches on a brown paper background.

After Lamon’s arm was amputated, “I wanted to see if I could still be an artist.”

Those successful experiments further bolstered her recovering confidence, but Lamon emphasized that her art does not exist to express positive feelings exclusively.

Nonetheless, in spite of her repeated insistences that she’s merely a “scaredy cat,” Lamon ultimately acknowledged that she’s faced harrowing decision gates by ruthlessly winnowing down her available options, and learning to rely upon her own strength.

“What I learned in the hospital was, little is little, but nothing is nothing,” Lamon said. “I was so scared, for so long, of losing my arm, but a friend helped me get through things by reminding me to ask myself, ‘Do you have everything you need at this second?’ Even if all you’re starting with is bad sketches, it gives you something to work with.”

Lamon has expressed both her love and her grief in pieces such as 2014’s “Pink Pony,” which she painted in vivid oil hues after a friend committed suicide by jumping from the West Seattle Bridge.

In the wake of being upset by the loss of her friend, Lamon painted the titular pink pony with a blank, whitish stare, which suggested blindness to her, but over time, she eventually added a pupil to its visible eye, because she decided “it was time for that horse to see.”

Admission for the Sept. 14 gallery tour is a suggested donation of $12, for which Lamon will personally guide guests through her exhibition, sharing such stories behind each work.

“Suzanne brings her art to life with humor and honesty, making each piece resonate on a personal level,” said Alexandra Toombs, director of development and communications for the JCHS museum. “You can experience a unique interaction with a seasoned artist, and gain a firsthand understanding of how life’s challenges and triumphs have influenced her expansive body of work. This evening promises to be filled with art, insight and engaging conversation.”

Registration is required, and chairs are available throughout the gallery for seating.

Reserve your tickets online at https://bit.ly/3Saq9gl.