On Landscapes

I get a lot of enjoyment from painting these minimalist abstracted landscapes. The process for me is frequently more meditative than expressive right now. I start with a basic idea for a composition in mind and from there a dialogue develops between me and the painting. Sometimes I end up really far from where I originally intended to go. In actuality, the painting tells me where to go more than anything else.

So how does a painting tell me what to do, you might wonder. What I don't think many non-painters realize is that regardless of what type of art you are creating, I think most painting artists spend more time looking at the painting than actually painting. When an artist looks at a painting, that is when we are listening to the painting. There is a sense of "feeling" when something is off, weak or, when we are lucky, exciting. It might say, "increase the contrast here" or "More color saturation there". For me that feeling guides my work...listening is about feeling what my instincts are saying...the intellect plays a very secondary role in the process. It's job is to take the information that we are getting from the painting and translate it into action. After the action is taken, you stand back again and listen for what has changed and then repeat the process. Sometimes that action is calm and meditative, other time the action is physical and full of energy. For me I need both types.

In my opinion, when an artist is really on their game, their paintings are a pure expression of their authentic self, good or bad. This can only happen if they are really listening to what is going on between themselves and the painting.

If your experience is different I would love to hear about it!

Burning Fall

There is a poem I read ages ago that I always think of when it comes to fall...sadly I can not find it, but this painting reminds me of it.

Oil on Yupo Paper, 16" x 20" $175

Burning Sugar

I did a quick study last year of the sugar fields in Florida burning. Here is a more involved version of the same theme.

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas, 2010, $250

Horizon

Oil on Wood Panel. About 12" x 16". I never get tired of looking at the water...I never get tired of painting it either.

Goat Chees

One of my absolute favorite living artists is Wayne Thiebaud. One of the things I love about him is how he manages to see all the color in white. This little painting of a round of Goat Cheese was my attempt to do the same. 8" x 10" Oil on Yupo Paper.

Pink Cloud

Just a little something I had fun with. 8" x 8" Oil on a wood panel.

Morning on the Bay

A dreamy painting of sunrise on the Chesapeake Bay. 8" x 10" Oil on Paper.

Becks

So I am revisiting my Male figure painting. I did a series of these back at SVA, but stopped for a few years. This painting is a study of a photo of David Beckham I found online. It is about 8" x 10" and is Oil paint on Yupo paper.

9-11-9

Painting - 24" x 36" Oil on Canvas

Drawing - 4" x 6" India Ink on Paper

Rollback

24" x 30" - Oil on Canvas - $850

Gallop 16" x 30" - Oil on Canvas

A little something different. $975.

Davidsonville ROad - 30" x 40" - Oil on Canvas

Recently finished this painting. $1,150.

Flying - 24" x 36" Oil on Canvas

This painting is currently being shown at the Noroton Gallery in Darien, CT.

Sugar Burn II

8" x 10" - Oil on Paper - $175

A different perspective on the earlier painting of Sugar Cane burning outside of Wellington. I really like this small painting.

Tavern Island Morning

16" x 20" - Oil on Canvas - $250

Thought I'd post a nice warm painting on this snowy morning.

Landscape

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas - $250

Sugar Burn - Wellington

12" x 18" - Oil on Paper - $225

I've spent some time in Wellington, FL which is just west of West Palm Beach. Past Wellington there is a lot of Sugar Cane. When they are done harvesting the cane they burn the fields...it's a fairly common farming technique that isn't practiced a lot since it's bad for the environment. I was struck by the big clouds of smoke rising from the bright green fields.

Susquehanna Night Fall

16" x 20" - Oil on Canvas - $250

Part of my night series. Taking I-95 North between DC and CT you cross the Susquehanna River, usually it's night when I cross...this is one of my impressions of the corssing.

CHANGE

Big News! My official website is back up and running. TinaDuryea.com will be geared exclusively toward the marketing of my commissions of horse and dog portraits.

As a result I will no longer be blogging here about aspects of an artists life, but will focus on showcasing my finished paintings (especially my landscapes). I am doing this because I felt the actual paintings were getting lost amidst all the other posts. I hope to post new images at least 3 times a week and will include availability of paintings in the post.

Also, I am starting a new blog OpArt where I will be writing about Art. It is my hope that this blog will be a place to read about what is going on in the art world that will be accessible for everyone.

I have recently started partnering with Image Kind in order to offer Giclee Prints of many of my paintings. Giclee prints are an affordable high quality alternative to original paintings and Image Kind allows you to choose the size you want, whether it's on Artists Paper or Canvas and framing options.

Lastly, I am starting a quarterly newsletter, if you want to receive it, please email me at tinaduryea@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting!

Horizon V

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas - $250

Night on the Sound

16" x 20" - Oil on Canvas - $250

This is a painting I did from memory. I used to walk my dog to the beach in the evenings when I lived in Norwalk, CT. Just off the beach is "Tavern Island".

Post Hurricane - Fishers Island

Oil on Canvas 16" x 20" - $250

I did this little painting from a photograph I took years ago when I was on Fishers Island and Hurricane Bob came right over the Island. There's something about the quality of the light after a storm that's just really great.

Summer

It's done! This painting is available as a print on tinaduryea.imagekind.com. At this point I am not sure whether I am offering the original for sale.

Inauguration

I took the day off to attend the Inauguration. It was my first Inauguration, and probably my last since I don't know when I'll have the opportunity to go again. I had a great, although freezing time. Everyone was in high spirits and I have never seen so many people in one place in all my life!

Almost Done

I'm hoping to finish this tomorrow so that it's done before the inauguration. I will be on the mall somewhere on Tuesday, might post a picture or two:-)

WIP - Face Close Up

Spent a lot of time on the face of this piece today. It's close to done. Once I am satisfied that everything is massed in correctly I start sharpening the focus on the key areas...mainly the face. Unfortunately, my dogs were very energetic today and kept interrupting my work. Otherwise I would be done with the face by now.

Andrew Wyeth - 1917 - 2009

When did I decide I wanted to pursue Art? I always loved making art, especially drawing, but it wasn't a career path that I was encouraged to pursue. After a stint in corporate America I knew I wanted to do something different with my life but had no idea what. On my first vacation to Maine, in the Summer of 1999, I went to the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, ME. I had never seen any of the Wyeth's work in person and I was blown away by the emotional resonance in the paintings. One of the reasons I didn't pursue art seriously right after High School was because all of the art being created at the time seemed so outside of what I was interested in. It was abstract and conceptual and didn't move me at all. The Farnsworth Museum changed that perception, and when I got back from Maine I signed up for a painting class and haven't looked back since.

Early on in my painting career, I happened to be in a small gallery on the Upper East Side of NYC. Their catalogue mentioned an Andrew Wyeth painting so I asked to see it. They waved me back to a small office, and there hanging on the wall was one of his paintings. I was all by myself with a million dollar painting. It was amazing, there was so much tension and emotion in that simple work of art. It was titled "Intruder" and I made a sketch of it (see above). Andrew Wyeth is one of my heroes, he painted what he wanted to and to hell with the critics. He had an immense talent and worked in two of the most difficult mediums out there. And he continued to paint up until his death at 91, yesterday January 16th, 2009. I will miss him.

WIP

This is a painting I am hoping to submit for consideration for the Poster for the Hampton Classic this year. I think it's a great and not typical depiction of a horse and rider jumping. It's 24" x 36".

Studio Pic

I thought it would be interesting to post this picture, and yes that painting is upside down! Sometimes when working on a large painting it's easier to work that way. I had an art teacher in ninth grade who made us copy images upside down. Oddly enough it's a really good tool, it helps you see reality in an abstract sense. In a funny way, I actually consider everything I paint to be abstract.

WIP - Summer

Making progress now...I think this painting will be done within a week or so. It's going real fast, I don't know if it's because Summer is my dog and I know her face so well, or because of the composition or what...the next big task will be getting those paws right!

WIP - Summer

I'm not sure I've made enough progress on this piece to really warrant an update, but I'm having so much fun with it I thought I'd post it anyway! I've added a shadow and made a lot of corrections to the muscle, and have refined the feet.

WIP - Morgan

Made a good deal of progress on this one today so I thought I'd post again.

Kobi

It's Done! At least it is when the client gets back to me with approval. Kobi, 16" x 20", Oil on Canvas.

Morgan - WIP

Another portrait I am working on. Morgan is a Chocolate Lab....she's one of those labs that makes the breed so popular because she is such a great dog.

WIP - Day 2

Made a lot more progress today. I'm really excited about this one. I also painted a winter landscape, which I will post later and am working on another dog portrait.

Portrait Start

This is the start of my next portrait. It's actually my dog Summer in what I think of as her Sphinx pose. It's a great challenge as a painting because of the rather extreme foreshortening I'm going to have to do, but I'm really looking forward to it!

WIP - DOg Portrait

This is a commissioned portrait I am working on for a client in New York. It is actually due to be a surprise gift for her boyfriends birthday in February. The painting is really starting to come together and only needs a couple of more sessions I believe.

Below I am posting a few previous stages of the painting, including the initial blocking in.

2009

Just thought I'd share the various stuff I'm working on now. Here are the 5 main pieces I am doing. They are all in different stages of execution. I am also always doing landscapes and experimental paintings.

Happy New Year!

Got Milk?

This is an older drawing of a horse named "Got Milk". I was preparing for a painting of him and due to the fact that he has such unique markings I felt I needed to get a better understanding of them before I painted them. So I did this drawing of him as a learning exercise...and I love how it came out!

9/22/08

This will be the last update for probably the next two weeks...I am in the process of moving so won't be working as much as I would like. I am happy with all the progress I made last week. I have toned down the saturation of the painting (especially in the background) and continued with the shading of the body of the horse. I also made a tremendous amount of progress with the rider. I extended her leg significantly (because I was way off) and I think I am pretty close to done with the saddle area. I have been focusing more on the area from the saddle back so my next area of concentration will be the front end and the horses head.

I really like posting images as I go along...for some reason seeing the painting on a computer frequently guides me in my next step. I have also been viewing my reference photos on my computer, which has been really nice because I can zoom in on an area to really see what it needs to look like.

As soon as I am able I will post more.

WIP - 9/17/2008

WOW! What a difference a day makes. This piece is finally starting to pop into focus. I am really excited about it and plan on spending the next two days working on it non-stop. After that I will be moving studios and won't be able to work on it for a couple of weeks:-(

Today I spent a lot of time working on defining muscle and getting some expression on the face. Some artists work on one area at a time until it is nearly complete and then move to the next. I am constantly working on the painting as a continual whole. Everything is relational, shapes, colors, values, negative space. Early on in my career I remember doing a painting where one section of it was so beautifully painted I loved it...only problem was it didn't work with the rest of the painting. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do as an artist to paint over that section. That's why I now approach a painting as a whole as opposed to a series of sections connected like a puzzle.

Hope that makes sense!

Okay, I fell like this is really coming together now. While I haven't made much progress on the details of the piece, I am MUCH happier with the proportions, negative space, color relationships and all over feeling of the piece!

Maybe I will post another Work In Progress ("WIP") tomorrow as it is what I have the most of these days!

9/11/2008

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile...I have been focusing on my Facebook fan page and finding someone to rebuild my website.

About this piece. I grew up in Connecticut and spent a large amount of my life on the Sound. My fathers family came to New York when it was called New Amsterdam and my own mother first arrived in this country by boat in New York harbor. I only lived in the city for a year, but I went to school there and grew up with it being the place that my world revolved around.

Today, I got worried that I was going to forget the way it's supposed to look. I don't have photographs of the skyline from the water, just memories. In my mind's eye I still see them, a perfect counter balance to the mass of midtown. For those of us who remember, it will never look right again. I painted this for the way I feel about New York, for me it will always be a city suspended between sea and sky...filled with dreams.

Fustrations of an Artist

OK...I've finally had time to work on my big piece again. The day started out lovely...I made some really satisfying decisions on color, temperature and saturation that I got from working on one of my landscapes. I took the dogs for their walk and have been working on it since. The problem is...I got home and realized there were some serious structural issues with the painting...UGH!

When working on this scale I try and plot alot of strategic points in advance to avoid this problem...however...invariably I get to a stage where I find that due to over exubarance and sometimes bad math I've made a mistake. THis happened tonight. So I have been working to correct problems instead of having fun. This photo shows some of that...look where the whit lines stand out, or their are weird shadows...those are corrections. A correction isn't as simple as painting over...because you have to make the correction and then layer over it to get rid of the mistake, which involves drying time and more layers.

Plus this whole process involves algebra which I am not a huge fan of.

Anyway, I am making progress again and hopefully my next post will be even better!

Cheers!

Good Press!

DCist had this wonderful press for Artomatic...

check it out at

http://dcist.com/2008/05/09/artomatic_is_op.php

DCist.com

Amanda and my space made it onto the DCist.com blog today...check out the photo of the day above. Thanks Maggie and Nigel for letting me know about this.

About DCist:

Founded in August, 2004, DCist is the most popular local blog in Washington and it covers all the goings-on of the Capitol. The site has been mentioned in The Washington Post and the New York Sun, amongst other publications. Washingtonian magazine said DCist was, "habit-forming" blog that specializes in the collection of "tidbits of political and cultural arcana." On the U.S. News, DCist was called a "great blog on what's happening in D.C. Founded in August, 2004, DCist is the most popular local blog in Washington and it covers all the goings-on of the Capitol. The site has been mentioned in The Washington Post and the New York Sun, amongst other publications. Washingtonian magazine said DCist was, "habit-forming" blog that specializes in the collection of "tidbits of political and cultural arcana." On the U.S. News, DCist was called a "great blog on what's happening in D.C.




Check it out at http://dcist.com

The Finished Product

The fruits of all our labours!

Here is my space and my good friend Amanda's adjoining space. We are really happy about the way things turned out.

I hope as many people as possible can make it, but I do want to add a warning that some of the art might not be suitable for children. If you wish to attend and have children I would be happy to help you, just email me at tinaduryea@gmail.com. Additionally, I believe Artomatic is arranging some child friendly events which are listed on the website.

Hope to see you all on the 11th Floor!