Sue Halstenberg began her career as a fashion illustrator for the Southern California department stores. To further expand her creative abilities as a fine artist, she studied plein air figure painting in pastels with George Carlson at Scottsdale Artists School in Arizona.  A few years later she started her own business, accepting commissions for portrait and figure painting.

Her pastel painting of "Victoria" was featured on the cover of American Artist Magazine and Sue was juried in as a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, New York.  Her work has been exhibited in many national art shows and received awards, including the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Award at the Pastel Society of America's Open Exhibition, First Place Genre at the Pastel Society of the West Coast National Open, and Best of Show at the Pastel Society of Oregon's National Juried Competition.