|
 |
|
|
Contemplative and measured, Colin Berry's paintings evoke the silent and exquisite beauty of a dream. With careful observation and an articulate command of his craft, Berry takes his greatest inspiration from the rich tradition of the Italian Renaissance and such artistic giants as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. In fact, it was Berry's early exposure to Leonardo that launched him on his journey as an artist via a high school art teacher who "exposed me to the art and thought of Leonardo da Vinci, which effectively changed my life and led me to become an artist...Leonardo's works of art, which are incomparable for their quality of grace and subtlety of feeling continue to inspire me deeply." Colin Berry received his undergraduate and Master's degrees in fine art from the University of New Hampshire and Boston University, respectively, but it was his painting experiences in Southern France and Italy that clearly most profoundly influenced his art. In 1985 he painted in a summer workshop in La Napoule, France, and in 1993 he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study and paint at the Florence Academy. Following in the traditions of the old masters, he studied human anatomy from casts made from cadavers in the Zoological Museum in Florence as an aid to the figurative painting process. Proficient in Italian, he was able to understand and appreciate the native culture of the country and carry with him the experience of living in beautiful Tuscany, which he uses frequently in his work. Comfortable and extremely accomplished with figurative, still life and landscape, Berry frequently presents his subjects quite directly on a masonry or marble wall with an atmospheric Tuscan landscape behind them, as if seen in an other-worldly reverie. There are no brush marks or paint strokes on the canvas, very much in keeping with the Renaissance tradition of the painting appearing as though by magic, divinely inspired. The sfumato, or subtle shading, and tonal quality of the paintings imbue them with a stillness. "Each painting that I produce is an exercise in the endless pursuit of perfection in craft and vision. My paintings seem to evoke a subtle poetic quality that is serenely classic...In the end my hope is that the work might embody sentiment analogous to a lyric sense of beauty, like classical song." Colin Berry has taught at the New
Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire and at the Heartwood
School of Art in Kennebunkport, Maine, and has been a lecturer in a variety
of schools including University of New Hampshire, Chester College, New
England College, all in New Hampshire, Wesleyan University in Connecticut
and the American International School of Florence in Italy. He has
exhibited his paintings in numerous gallery exhibitions, among others,
in Boston, Provincetown, Kennebunkport, Denver, and at the prestigious
Copley Society of Boston. His work has been featured in American
Artist Magazine. Colin Berry maintains a studio at his home in Hampton,
New Hampshire. His work is collected widely in the United States
and in Europe.
|
||