"Bringing the Museum to You"

By permission of the artist, The Cyber Art Show is pleased to feature the first of two 12-piece Exhibitions of works by American contemporary painter Donald Jurney.

 

Donald Jurney was born in Rye, New York, in 1945, and was educated at Columbia University, the Pratt Institute, and the Art Students League.

 

He began his career, nearly thirty years ago, with a one-man show at a temporary gallery space in The Hudson House, Cold Spring, New York. A group of prescient collectors bought up the paintings at prices from fifty to two hundred dollars. Since then, through more than twenty subsequent one-man exhibitions, the reception has been the same — sold-out show after sold-out show.

 

Jurney’s work is firmly rooted in the great landscape tradition, stretching from Dutch 17th century painting through the Barbizon and Hudson River Schools, to late 19th and early 20th century French and American impressionism. Nonetheless, one cannot mistake the evidence that his work is also informed and enlivened by the influence of modern painting.

 

Jurney’s work, like that of many of the masters he respects, begins with pencil drawings in the field. Exploring the particulars of a chosen place, he carefully records the information, which he will later need in the studio. Sometimes several years will elapse before the drawing becomes the motif for a new painting. Exploring the particulars of a chosen place, he carefully records the information, which he will later need in the studio. Sometimes several years will elapse before the drawing becomes the motif for a new painting. In the studio, from his deep understanding of the vocabulary of nature, coupled with a keen sensibility and great skill, comes a painting with the indelible stamp of a certain day and hour, of a particular weather, and with a unique sense of place.

 

Donald Jurney has lived and worked in the Hudson River Valley, in England, and in the Berkshires. For a number of years, he has painted extensively in France. A recent interest has been kindled by a trip to the West of Ireland, and he has begun exploring the coastal marshes and the estuaries of Boston’s North Shore.

 

But wherever his travels take him, we can be sure of an invitation to come along, through his paintings, and of the chance to share his unique vision of the landscape — inspired by his unflagging enthusiasm for the remarkable world about us.