Check out Laura Tryon Jennings’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Tryon Jennings.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Since I was young girl, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I would spend all day drawing or creating something. My mother would encourage me to go out to play. Sometimes I took her advice, but often I would stand at the end of the driveway waiting for what seemed a reasonable amount of time to go back to making art. I majored in art in college and minored in graphic design. I always felt there was nothing else for me to be but an artist. The first seven or eight years after college I was a graphic designer, feeling it was a more practical choice. I continued to paint for myself. After my second child was born (I have three children, two boys and a girl.), I decided to try being a full-time artist. I woke up at 5:00 a. m. Monday thru Friday to enable three to four hours of uninterrupted painting. I squeaked out another few hours in between naps and trying to keep the children entertained with toys at my feet while painting. I entered my first juried show and won best in show, which gave me the courage to keep going. I was fortunate to receive some awards, attention, exhibits, and sales, in those first few years which made me feel I was on the right path. Through the nineties and early two-thousands I was lucky to maintain a steady presence in the art scene. A series of difficult life events, including divorce and the death of my sweet mother, along with a horrible economy forced me to reevaluate how to go about being an artist. With the new challenge of being a single mum to three adventurous adolescents, I began teaching oil painting and became an expressive arts consultant/facilitator while continuing to paint. I ended up loving both of these other hats in the art world and for a while they were a bit more in the driver’s seat. After a few years of managing this balancing act, the reduced attention to my painting just wasn’t feeling right anymore. Now, I have blissfully returned painting to the driver’s seat while still incorporating teaching and expressive arts.

Please tell us about your art. What do you do / make / create? How? Why? What’s the message or inspiration, what do you hope people take away from it? What should we know about your artwork?
I’m a contemporary realist oil painter. I paint mostly interiors, although I do paint landscapes, still life’s, figures, and other scenes. The underlying theme of the majority of my work is the tension between chaos and tranquility. Most paintings project feelings of calmness, peacefulness, and enlightenment which hopefully cause the viewer to pause, look, and focus on the art and serenity within the moments of everyday life. Often these quiet scenes have a segment of swirling reflection of the messy parts of life. I seek to reveal the message we ought to take time from our hectic pace to reflect and treasure life’s simplicity, if only for a moment. I find the complexity and intricacy of life and relationships intriguing and try to capture those feelings in my paintings.

Each series has its own particular focus. For example, the Bedroom Series, which I call “bedscapes”, explores allusions of provocation and expectation with particular focus on the tensions between power and authenticity which encompass being vulnerable. This series was born out of a succession of transformative life events. I discovered the path to healing was learning to be vulnerable. There are so many crosscurrents within each bedscape involving angst, hopes, passion, dreams, rawness, and relaxation which begin and end the day in this intimate and private environment. There is a range and depth of emotions contained within each perspective.

My paintings represent my own life circumstances and allow me a way to try to make sense of the underlying psychological murmurings. A previous collection, the Cereal Series, evoked a different set of feelings with a subtle innuendo playing out in each background pattern. This series captured the essence of family and fleeting morning moments, rendering a simple and quiet image belying lives that are never quite still. Throughout the series I used coffee cups, cereal bowls and assorted found materials as metaphors, reminding viewers of these smaller meaningful moments, which sometimes go unnoticed; of reflective mornings; and of course, fond childhood memories of your favorite cereal. My landscapes are vistas I’m attracted to for the calm and meditative features they impart on my senses while I leave the ever-churning chores of life in the distance.

As a New Englander and avid colorist, my color palette has developed and evolved from strong seasonal and coastal influences offering a distinctive blend of hues and range of moods. My perspective is achieved by physically viewing objects or my subjects as though I am looking down at a puzzle, and connecting the shapes, that don’t appear to fit, but somehow work to complete a scene. I enjoy the use of both large and small canvases. My large canvas work allows me to be more physical and heighten the focus of objects and subjects within while my small canvas work allows for a more intimate, gem-like outcome. These influences and techniques combined with a lifelong passion result in my interpretation and expression of some of life’s magnetic moments.

We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
I tend to need a lot of alone time and require a certain amount of isolation to paint. There are a few artists I admire that provide me with technical advice and allow me to bounce ideas around, which I find enormously helpful. I think it’s important to find at least one or two artists whose work you regard to exchange thoughts and ideas. I’m also a member of the Copley Society of Art and the North River Art’s Society, which is a great way to meet other artists. I’d recommend joining an artist association or club of some kind to make art connections.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I’m preparing for a solo exhibit at the Elizabeth Moss Gallery in spring of 2019 (date TBA). The Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA will have my work in a group exhibit titled “Mel Leipzig and Friends” from May 30th-August 4th, 2019. The show will travel, with some tweaks, to the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in 2022 (date TBA, check back on my website for dates). I’m represented by Copley Society of Art in Boston, MA, Elizabeth Moss Gallery in Falmouth, ME, Sunne Savage, in Winchester, MA, and Gingerbread Square Gallery in Key West, FL.

My work can also be seen on Instagram under Laura_Tryon_Jennings, my website at www.LTryonJennings.com, and in my Marshfield, MA studio by appointment. I’ve been gaining a presence towards the cape area with recent exhibits at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury and the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Denise. I was just awarded an art residency from the Copley Society of Art to live and work at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown for a month, so I’m hoping there will be an exhibit in the cape region to show the outcome of the work. I’m open to exhibiting in other markets and would love to get another commercial gallery who would be committed to my work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LTryonJennings.com
• Phone: 781-837-7982
• Email: Laura@LTryonJennings.com
• Instagram: laura_tryon_jennings
• Facebook: Laura Tryon Jennings
• Twitter: Laura Tryon Jennings

Image Credit:
Laura Tryon Jennings for painting images and William F. Judge for studio photo.

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