An Ohio native, Susan Blubaugh first studied art at the Columbus College of Art and Design. After moving to New York City in 1975 she worked as an artist and illustrator, continuing her studies with noted painters Isaac Soyer, Harvey Dinnerstein, Burton Silverman and Hilary Holmes at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York City. She also worked with noted landscape painter Curtis Hanson in Litchfield, Connecticut who said of her work: "Her love of painting directly from nature has stayed with her since I encountered her painting in Central Park in the 1980s. Her drawing ability is impeccable and the paintings always reflect a freshness only gotten by firsthand observations. Many artists have shorthand methods that produce flashy effects that often hide their lack of ability. With Susan, I always see a patient seeking of visual truth that is imbued with the excitement of honest discovery."

After moving to the Delaware River Valley in 2001, Susan began showing her work locally and for the past five years has exhibited exclusively at des Champs Gallery in Lambertville, New Jersey. She had two solo shows there, the first in 2007 and most recently in 2010. She was invited to exhibit her work in the fall of 2009 at the Invitational Exhibition of Hunterdon County Artists at the Prallsville Mill in Stockton, New Jersey. She has been included in many juried competitions including the Phillips Mill Annual Fall Exhibition where she won the Traditional Landscape Award in 2008 and the Best Traditional Oil Painting Award in 2007.

Susan has participated in the invitation only Plein Air Easton, Maryland competition, limited to 53 artists.  She was the recipient of the Woolverton Inn Award in 2006 at the Hunterdon County Cultural and Heritage Commission Exhibit at the Prallsville Mill in Stockton, New Jersey and has exhibited at the Lambertville Historical Society’s juried shows in 2006 and 2007, 2008 and 2009.