Southwest Art – August 2019

42 WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM • AUGUST 2019

VISITORS TO CYNTHIADuff’ssolo
show,takingplacethismonthat Rait-
manArtGalleriesinVail,CO,canex-
pecttoseea plethoraofColoradovistas
and wildlife portraits. While thisnew
collectionofwork—about 20 paintings
intotal—isn’toutofthe ordinaryfora
nature-loving artist whose home is
perchedona mountainridgeinwestern
Colorado, some viewers might be sur-
prisedtofindthatDuffportrayshersub-

jectsnoton canvasbutonbirchwood.

Theartistevenbendssomeofthepieces

aftershepaintsthem. “WhenI benda

piece,ittakes on a wholenewdimen-

sion,” she says. “You walk around the

painting,andthescenejustchanges.”

Duff’sshow,fittinglyentitledNature’s

Pulse,openson Friday,July19,andin-

cludesmainlylarge-scalepaintingswith

bothflat andbentsurfaces.Amongthese

piecesareportrayalsofDillonLake,the

Gore Range, sunsets on the Colora-

do River, and aspen trees with the

sun shining through them. There

are also portraits of deer, horses,

coyotes, and other animals she

has observed and photographed

throughout Colorado. Each painting

captures a place or moment Duff has

personally experienced. “I can tell

you what mountain peak I’m paint-

ing and what location,” she says. “I

just abstract it.”

Employing a technique she calls

“fracturing,” Duff creates contrast-

ing shapes with “very free, loose

patterns” of color using strips of

tape she temporarily applies to her

surfaces as she works. The shifts in

color that result—some subtle and

others bold—resemble refracted

light. “It feels like the atmosphere,”

says Duff. “You can feel a breeze

coming through, and it can feel like

two different times of day in the

same painting.”

The artist builds up layers of

transparent acrylic paint on her

surfaces until she nears the end of

her process, when she switches to

opaque paint. “That’s when I can go

back in and add pops of color, and

sometimes I’ll glaze over the opaque

layers with transparent paint to get

someoftheluminosityback,”says

theartist,whois carefulnottocov-

erupthecharacterofthewoodit-

self.“I lovenature’sartistryinthewood

grains,” says Duff. “There’s a texture

andsoftnessthatI can’tcomeuponany

otherway.”—KimAgricola

contact information

970.476.4883

http://www.raitmanart.com

See more work at http://www.southwestart.com/

events/cynthia-duff-aug2019.

Golden Arena, acrylic on birch, 24 x 24.

Cynthia Duf f

Raitman Art Galleries, July 19-August 18

SHOW PREVIEW

Vail, CO