Christine A. Daly (American, 1952-) contemporary artist known for her still life and equestrian paintings. The pastoral farmland of Wyoming County is both home and inspiration to painter Christine Daly. Her carefully crafted images describe the chance encounters of her rural life. Horses and hounds quietly traverse her landscapes while fertile gardens provide a seasonal abundance of still life fodder. Her forays into the fields and woods yield pockets full of gnarled wild fruits, antlers shed in a cornfield or remnants of battered kitchenware retrieved from the tangled overgrowth of long abandoned farmsteads. Back in her studio she meticulously lights and arranges her finds into spare compositions, riveting the viewer’s attention precisely on that which has captivated hers.
After earning degrees in both Studio Art and Art History Daly initially set out to be a mural painter. However that ideal quickly surrendered to the security of a predictable income. Working long hours as a commercial artist, breeding horses and raising a family shelved any notion of painting for several years. Leaving the job and the city for a farm in East Arcade in 1987, Christine eventually found her way home. She returned to the things she loves most: riding her horses, tending her gardens, roaming the woods with children and dogs and visually transcribing what she has seen and found. The resulting watercolors and oil paintings have been successfully exhibited and sold in galleries throughout the US. Her solo exhibits have sold out and several of her paintings have appeared on covers of the national periodicals. In addition to painting, Christine has collaborated with her husband, artist Thomas Aquinas Daly (American, 1937-) on several related projects. She authored the text for
Painting Natures Quiet Places, (Watson-Guptill, 1985) and conceived, wrote and designed
The Art of Thomas Aquinas Daly: The Painting Season, (Daly Studio, 1998).
"I have always made pictures and what motivates me now is no different than what motivated me as a small child. It's a sublimation of my need to holler: 'LOOK at this!' A humble garden onion is a gorgeous thing. Take the time to see it."
Unfettered by pretense, Daly retains an innate curiosity that invites seduction by the exquisite organic shapes, patterns and colors that compel her to paint. With deep respect for the enduring tradition of still life painting, her quiet contemplations focus on the extraordinary beauty of ordinary things.
“I establish strong directional lighting because I'm fascinated by the shapes of cast shadows and I depend on them as integral elements of my compositions. Generally I create a simple, asymmetric design using a flat expanse of negative space. It's a device that was utilized in Japanese wood block prints and the subsequent compositions of 19th century Western painters such as Whistler and Degas. By thoughtfully dividing the picture plane and editing extraneous clutter there is a graphic quality to the image that gives it strength from a distance despite its small size.”
To view additional works or to contact the artist, please visit the artist's website
link
(Compiled by Mark Strong of Meibohm Fine Arts, Inc., East Aurora, NY, 09/2008, from sources: Biographical information with permission from the artist.)
