Annika Connor

"Happiness Hides in Trees" Painting, Oil on Linen, Bright Colors, Nature

2022

Joellyn T Duesberry Wall on Wharf Street, #513, New Orleans, LA 1976. Oil on linen Dimensions: (Frame) H 50.5" x W 66.5". sight size 50 x 66" Joellyn Toler Duesberry (1944 – 2016) was a plein air landscape artist who worked in oils. She said that her paintings echo the work of John Marin and Milton Avery. Of her art, Duesberry said, "I am not interested in a realist painting, I am not interested in an abstract painting. I am interested in the tension." Joellyn Duesberry was born on June 30, 1944 in Richmond, Virginia. Growing up in rural Virginia instilled in her a love for the land. She said, "All my life I think I've unconsciously tried to recreate the place where bliss or terror first came to me. Both emotions seemed so strong that I had to locate them outside of myself, in the land. This goes back to a childhood habit of living in rural Virginia and seeking woods and creeks and lakes for solitary refuge; places where I could sketch and paint." She decided to start painting at age ten after being given a pair of red tennis shoes and walking on the beach, inspired by the colorful juxtaposition of sand, shadow, and shoe. Soon thereafter she decided that "Women artists existed and she needed to be among them." She received a BA with Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, in art history and painting, from Smith College in 1966. In that year she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. While at Smith, she "honed her skills by making countless copies of masterworks." She took her master's degree at New York University Institute of Fine Arts. Despite her degrees, she is considered to be a self-taught artist. Joellyn Duesberry was a plein air painter, who began "her canvases outdoors on an easel and finished] them in the studio, frequently making monotypes in between." She moved to Denver in 1985, and embraced the Colorado landscape in her art. In that year she received an Individual Painting Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to work with Richard Diebenkorn. In 1997, Duesberry won the Benjamin Altman Landscape Prize from the National Academy of Design. While she had a World Views residency with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) from 1998-1999, Duesberry painted city studies in studio space in some vacant offices of the World Trade Center's North Tower. She says that, because of her connection to the World Trade Center, the tone of her painting saddened after 9/11. In 2005, a PBS documentary was made of Joellyn Duesberry's life, work, and creative process titled Joellyn Duesberry: Dialogue with the Artist. Her works are held by institutions such as Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smith College Museum of Art. Publications 1998: A Covenant of Seasons: Monotypes by Joellyn T. Duesberry, Poetry by Pattiann Rogers, 2011: Elevated Perspective: The Paintings of Joellyn Duesberry, SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS Elevated Perspective: The Paintings of Joellyn Duesberry, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Joellyn Duesberry: A Passion for the Land, Leslie Levy Fine Art, Inc., Scottsdale, AZ Joellyn Duesberry: A Passion for Western Land, William Havu Gallery, Denver, CO Joellyn Duesberry Monotypes: Hidden Treasures, William Havu Gallery, Denver, CO Joellyn Duesberry: Solace on Safari, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Tremaine Gallery, The Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT. Recent Monotypes, James Graham & Sons, Madison Avenue, New York, NY Joellyn Duesberry: Monotypes, Lizan-Tops Gallery, Easthampton, NY The Garden Paintings, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO Joellyn Duesberry: Paintings, Tavelli Gallery, Aspen, CO Joellyn Duesberry, Graham Modern, Madison Avenue, New York, NY Joellyn Duesberry: Paintings and Monotypes, Carol Siple Gallery, Denver, CO Joellyn Duesberry, Tatistcheff Gallery, New York, NY SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS Significant Women Artists, Curtis Arts & Humanities Center, Greenwood Village, CO Finding Abstraction, Gallery 1261, Denver, CO Rocks on Paper, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, NY Summer Landscape Show, Greenhut Gallery, Portland, ME Defining the West: 200 Years of American Imagery, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Roots, Landing Gallery, Rockland, ME Annual Professional Painters’ Exhibition, The Century Association, New York, NY Glory of Landscapes, Pelham Art Centre, New York, NY Salon du Musee, Featured Artist, Salon d Arts at Gallery 1261, Denver, CO Small Works, Gallery 1261, Denver, CO The Urban Myth, Vision of the City, Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA The Art of Printmaking, paying homage to Open Press,Archer Concept Group,Denver,CO Twenty Years: Paintings: Joellyn Duesberry, Bunny Harvey...

A tall, fair-haired figure wrapped in a light blue towel stands on the bank of inviting, calm water. Dark green trees in a forest, and mountains in the dist...

In this peaceful contemporary painting in oil on linen, the chimneys and roof of a white house visible down a winding path lined with tall green hedges. The serene sky is calm and bl...

This colorful painting of plants and flowers in a backyard is from Francis Sills' 2017 series of Flora Paintings. The verdant shades of green are punctuated by the warmer tones of th...