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November Issue 2007
Modernisme, the Gallery at Avondale in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Nathan Durfee
Modernisme, the Gallery at Avondale, located in the West Ashley part of Charleston, SC, will present the exhibit, Celebrations of Stems and Clouds, featuring new works by Nathan Durfee, on view from Nov. 3 - 17, 2007.
You may have seen Durfee's work on the cover of the City Paper, his illustrations in Charleston Magazine, or his original paintings at Modernisme Gallery. His recognizable style has made this young artist one of Charleston's fastest rising stars. Durfee's talent and endless imagination makes him one of the most unique and sought after artists in Charleston.
Durfee, born in the small town of Bethel, VT, states his artistic aspirations first showed themselves in the classroom: a self-described "doodler." He attended the Savannah College of Art and Design to become a traditional portrait artist. As his current work boldly exhibits, Durfee's art took a unique, wholly personalized, direction. "I thought I would be a traditional, realistic painter - but then, if I'm able to create a reality, why do I need to have it adhere to the one we live in now?" This ability to create both conventional and alternative realities allows him to push and pull his work from the realistic to the abstract with imaginative skill.
Durfee's fanciful, often abstract, subjects share an organic connection with his informal school-day sketching. While working, he says, "I try to keep that wandering state of mind - as I start laying down brush strokes, a narrative begins to develop. I keep molding and polishing the story until I'm happy with it, and in most cases it's something completely different than what I started out with."
Despite Durfee's uncanny subjects, his paint
application is studious and technically informed. How he paints,
he says, is more important than what he paints. The relation of
emotions to brushstrokes is keen: anger will produce a harsher,
quicker stroke than a feeling of calm or contentment. Durfee likes
to get his work done in as few sittings as possible, for the less
time there is between work periods, the less likely emotions and
brushstrokes will vary. Durfee's academic side carries over into
other parts of his artistic process as well. An avid chess player,
he likes to play before painting; it serves as "a mental
warm-up".
While painting, Durfee listens to lectures on a multitude of diverse
subjects, such as philosophy, history, and quantum physics. It
is important to him that his painting (the verb, not the noun)
stay as "academic and sophisticated as possible".
Durfee arrived in Charleston in 2005, brought here by a job with the Ben Silver Corporation as a color specialist. Durfee also works as a freelance illustrator; his illustrations and paintings have appeared in national publications, art journals, galleries, and his book Hello My Name is Bernard won an international award at the Associazione Culturale Teatrio in Italy.
Durfee's talent extends to the digital art world as well. I'm able to "achieve textures and details that exceed the limitations of a paintbrush," Durfee says. That certainly doesn't mean that his work in oils, acrylics, or ink will subside. "I have to paint - I can't go a day without it." And that means that we will be seeing Durfee and his canvas dreams for a good long time.
For further info check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/763-1551 or visit (www.modernismegallery.com).
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