Laura Tryon Jennings is an award-winning New England artist with a resume boasting nationwide exhibitions and prominent collectors including, bestselling authors Christina Baker Kline, Carol Higgins Clark and the late Mary Higgins Clark, grammy award winning singer Bruce Hornsby, news reporter Joan Lunden. Her work is also among the collections of Harvard University, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Merrill Lynch, University of Southern Indiana, Virginia Public Library, and HLM Venture Partners. Jennings was recently awarded the Margo-Gelb/Outer Cape Residency Consortium dune shack residency in Provincetown, Massachusetts and the Fine Art Works Art Center artist residency in Providence, MA given through the Copley Society of Art. She teaches oil painting at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA, Hope Floats Wellness and Healing Center in Kingston, MA, and in her Marshfield, MA studio. Jennings is a south shore resident who has fond memories of childhood Cape camping and adult summers in Brewster, MA. She spent her formative and university years in the U.S. and England where she earned a BA at Westfield Sate University in Massachusetts and continued studying art at Trent University in England and Salve Regina University, Rhode Island.
About
Artist Statement
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 explores allusions of provoking and expectation with particular focus on the power and authenticity which encompasses being vulnerable. The Cereal Series evokes a different feeling with a subtle innuendo playing out in each background pattern. This series captures 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 use coffee cups, cereal bowls and assorted found materials as metaphors, reminding us 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 meditative features they hold on my senses while I leave the churning 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.