This body of work was made over the past ten years and includes paintings that reflect both the natural world and the artist’s inner life. They exist in a zone where abstraction and representation shade off into each other, through the use of bold colors, earthy textures, and gestural brush strokes.
Intensely curious, the artist explores the micro and macro levels of the natural ecology. A painting done on site, in the woods or by a lake or stream, can serve as the basis for a series of works produced in the studio. In creating a painting, once a visual structure for the image is established, it begins to fragment, with the artist transferring her joy, excitement, and sense of freedom directly to the canvas.
At this point in a painting, the artist allows herself to break all the rules, and surrender to the process. Trusting her intuition, she is able to let go of any expectations of what a work of art should look like, and allow the medium of paint to speak. Distilled out of movement and change, the painting emerges as a gift.
Through close observation, this work is immersed in the natural world in myriad ways, through trees, flowers, insects, and birds. With spontaneous and direct mark-making, the artist’s actions stay ahead of her conscious mind. Her physical engagement with organic forms and the visceral qualities of paint expresses the abundance and beauty of nature, and the delight that she takes in it.
The aim in this work is a constant search for the energies of nature, and to dissolve the separation between things and expression. These paintings are the record the artist leaves behind of her journey into spirit, and in gratitude for life.
Artist Biography
Gerry Tuten’s paintings are deep encounters with the natural world. She paints woods, water, and sky with a physical vigor that reflects her spirited engagement with the environment and her urgent pursuit of personal expression.
Tuten was born in 1941 in Pittsburgh. Her early interest in art lead her to study interior design at the Parsons School of Design in New York, where she received a BFA in 1964. After working in interior design, in 1968 she spent a year traveling the world,with extended stays in France and India. Tuten studied metalsmithing at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she made small sculptures using plasma arc welding. During Tuten’s years at the Tyler School of Art, she created both metal and soft sculpture, receiving her MFA in 1973. She is a certified yoga teacher and lives in Villanova, PA.In the early 1990s, Tuten focused her energies on studying intuitive process painting, a practice for accessing thoughts and feelings by directly working with paint. This method of self-discovery became part of the artist’s approach to depicting the natural world. Tuten has stated that in her work, “abstraction and representation flow into each other”, and that rather than being a copy of nature, her “paintings reflect the joy of being in nature.”In the late 90s, the artist began working on long rolls of paper, creating monumental works with bold colors, gestural paint handling, and a wide range of living forms including insects, bird, fish, and butterflies. These works were followed by two years of paintings on paper that focused on abstract shapes, organic images, and the figure. In 1990, Tuten started painting outdoors, in the landscape of Pennsylvania.
The artist has painted the natural world over the past two decades, focusing on water reflecting the sky and trees, dense forests, seascapes, and flowers. Often a work done on site can serve as the basis for a series produced in the studio. A series of paintings begun in 2009 introduced a more abstract approach, combining a sense of open space, with moving color, symbolic images, and words. These paintings reflect Tuten’s statement: “My intention for the work is that it connect with others at the deepest level of feeling, to bring awareness and consciousness to beings and in this process, to bring healing, love and light.”
Tuten has had solo shows at Atlantic Gallery, New York; GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA; Pagus Gallery, Norristown, PA; Waverly Heights Gallery, Gladwyne, PA; Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, CT; Osterville Library, Osterville, MA; Commerce Square, Philadelphia; Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA; Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA; Carspecken Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE; Gallery 919, Wilmington, DE and The Villanova University Art Gallery, Villanova, PA. Her group exhibitions include Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA; Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Cheltenham, PA; SOKA University, Laguna Beach, CA; and Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia.
Education
1973 Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA MFA
1971 University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA BFA
1964 Parsons School of Design, New York, NY Certificate, Design
Exhibitions
Solo
TBA
(Postponed due to Covid19. New date TBA) Willows Park Preserve, Villanova, PA
2022
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago, IL
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, PA
2020 Change and Flow: Recent Paintings by Gerry Tuten, Carspecken-Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE
2019 Christopher's Restaurant, Wayne, PA
Carspecken-Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE
2018-2020 Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago, IL
2016 Osterville Village Library, Osterville, MA
Natural Flow, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
2015 Encounters with Nature, Founders Hall Art Gallery, SOKA University of America, Aliso Viejo, CA,
2014 Waterworks, Art Gallery- Connelly Center, Villanova University, Villanova, PA
New Paintings, Gallery 919 Market, Rodney Square, Wilmington, DE
2012 Ebb and Flow, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA
2011 Small Paintings, Little Beach Gallery, Hyannis, MA
Recent Work, Lawrence Gallery, Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA
2010 Wildlife Happenings, Speer Gallery, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA
2009 Air + Water, Atlantic Gallery, NYC
Gryphon Café, Wayne PA
2008 New Work, Pagus Gallery, Norristown, PA
Reflections in Nature, Waverly Heights Gallery, Gladwyne, PA
2007 Recent Works, Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, CT
Living in Color, Commerce Square, Philadelphia, PA
FLOW, Pagus Gallery, Norristown PA
2006 Reflections, Carspecken Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE
Group
2019 Sojourns in Nature, Cerulean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2017 Resonance and Memory; The Essence of Landscape, University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, Gorham, ME
Rolling Rock Exhibition, Ligonier, PA
Resonance and Memory; The Essence of Landscape, The Irving Arts Center Galleries and Sculpture Garden, Irving, TX
Resonance and Memory; The Essence of Landscape, Missouri State University, Brick City Gallery, Springfield, MO
2016 Cerulean Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Resonance and Memory; The Essence of Landscape, The Biedenham Museum & Gardens, Monroe, LA
Spring Gala, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA Juror: Sharon Ewing, Director Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Resonance and Memory; The Essence of Landscape, Michelson Museum of Art, Marshall, TX
2015 Resonance and Memory; The Essence of Landscape, Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Fort Smith, AR
72nd Annual Juried Painting Show, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Cheltenham, PA Juror: Sharon Ewing, Director Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2014 Resonance and Memory: The Essence of Landscape, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, NY
2nd Juried Show, Cerulean Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Generations IX: the Red/Pink show, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Annual Juried Show, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA
Group Community Art Show, Pagus Gallery, Norristown, PA
2012 71st Annual Juried Exhibition, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Expressions of Radnor, Wayne Art Center, PA
Commerce Square, Philadelphia, PA
Bounty of Farms, Wayne Art Center, PA
Expressions of Radnor, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA Juried Exhibition
2010 Landscape Into Abstraction, Yellow Springs Gallery, Yellow Springs, PA
2009 Miss Porter’s School, Farmington CT
Sic Transit Gloria, Atlantic Gallery, NYC
2007-2017 Annual Invitational, Pagus Gallery, Norristown, PA
2006, 2008, 2010 Dear Fleisher, Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA Invitational
2008 Betsy Meyer Memorial, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA Juried Exhibition
Catastrophe, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY Juried Exhibition
2006 Expressions of Radnor, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
66th Annual Juried Exhibition, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Paper ‘06, The Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA
2005 Spirited Women Artists, Main Line Unitarian Church, Devon, PA
2005-2009 Hyannis Port Invitational, Hyannis Port, MA
2003 Juried Art Exhibition, William Penn Charter School, Germantown, PA
2001-2005 Faculty and Juried Exhibitions, Wayne Art Center, PA
