Tula Telfair: Invented Landscapes

About

As a child, Telfair travelled extensively with her parents, experiencing dramatic changes in environments and contrasting climates within short time frames.  These globe-trotting years were to have a profound effect on Telfair and her artistic development.    Telfair paints fantastical landscapes conjured from memories and emotions she experienced in her journeys – these images are not actual places that exist nor locations she visited.    Her use of photo-realism is purely technical and heightens the notions that these images are eerily familiar yet not quite fully known. The absence of any human presence limits the narrative in her canvases, further allowing the viewer to bring their own personal experience to the work.  Created in a large scale, Telfair’s formidable paintings are about feeling the landscape much as they are about their visual presence.

Telfair grew up in Africa, Asia and Europe before returning to the United States.  She has had a prolific artistic career, with her paintings having been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions.  Her work has been extensively written about and is in many notable private, public and corporate collections.  She is also a professor of art at Wesleyan University and resides and works in Lyme, Connecticut. 

This exhibition was made possible with the generous collaboration of Forum Gallery in New York City.

A 160-page monograph published by Abrams entitled Tula Telfair: Invented Landscapes accompanies this exhibition.   It includes essays by Henry Adams, J. Michael Fay and Michael S. Roth.

“I start by painting skies on several canvases at once. The inspiration for them comes from memories of sensations I’ve had in nature.  Once a group of five or more images is underway, I’ll create a tonal underpainting in saturated color of landforms that I think will work effectively with what is happening above the horizon line.  One of my goals for a body of works is to create an atmospheric mood that varies dramatically from one painting to the next.”

Heather Gaudio Fine Art specializes in emerging and established artists, offering painting, works on paper, photography and sculpture. The gallery provides a full-range of art advisory services, from forming and maintaining a collection, to securing secondary market material, to assisting with framing and installation. The focus is on each individual client, selecting art that best serves his or her vision, space, and resources. The six exhibitions offered every year are designed to present important talent and provide artwork appealing to a broad range of interests. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday; 10:30am to 5:30pm; and by appointment.