Trent Burleson

2011-10-11T05:33:00.000-07:00

Another Image from the Newport Art Museum

2011-08-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Newport Art Museum

2011-08-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

The Museum Director, Lisa Goddard, sent me this photograph of students on a tour of the exhibition and discussing what my paintings mean.

What do you think?

2011-07-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

"Red Bird", private collection, Palm Beach, Florida, in Jackie Franks

jewelry promotion.

The Newport Art Museum

2011-06-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

Red Diving Bird, 2010, oil on canvas; 24 x 24 in.

Gayle Hargreaves

Editor

news@NewportArtMuseum.org

In Trent Burleson’s paintings, birds vie for a vulnerable

morsel, dive with grace and focused intent, or threaten

each other with displays of aggression. Their shapes and

the foliage that surrounds them are softened, blurry – as

though viewed though a gossamer veil. His colors range

from muted tones of ochre, brown and gray to more

intense shades of yellow, red and green. But always the

scenes are illuminated by an unnatural light: things are

not quite what they seem.

A painter of landscapes, still lifes and portraits,

Burleson says, “All of my work is about the same things:

composition, structure and geometry. I’m interested in

how a painting works, how shapes are repeated, how

they relate to each other.” His interest also extends to

“...the narrative that the birds create. I love the bird(s)

because they’re flying, they’re going somewhere.” In

most of these paintings, “the birds are contending for

something, they’re striving.”

Burleson’s birds are beautiful, breathtaking even, but

they aren’t precisely true-to-life. “If I were a naturalist, I

would make the birds more realistic; paint them with a

higher degree of verisimilitude.”

Despite the title “Birds and other Metaphors,” Burleson,

who teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design,

declines to offer his own metaphorical interpretations of

his paintings. says Burleson, “I invite the viewers to find

their own meaning and metaphors.”

Trent Burleson will be here to talk with us over lunch

on Tuesday, July 26 at noon. At 1 pm, Trent will

demonstrate chiaroscuro, a technique with origins in

the renaissance and still used today to create depth

on a two-dimensional surface by manipulating light

and shadow. Bring a lunch. Free for Members; $5 for

non-members.

Newport Art Museum ~ May 21 - August 17

2011-05-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Latest Madonna and Child Painting

2011-03-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

37.75" by 30", oil on canvass, 2011

RISD Faculty Biennial

2011-02-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

RISD Museum of Art

February 25 - March 20, 2011

Two Warblers, 2010, oil on canvass, 30" by 37"

Madonna and Child

2011-01-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun with the first Madonna painting I did a second which I have just photographed. It is based, once again, on a Renaissance conception of beauty. I have two more under way and I look forward to including them in my upcoming exhibition at the Newport Art Museum in May.

Oil on canvass 39" by 33.5"

For website go to burlesonart.com

2010-10-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.burlesonart.com/

Pear, 24" by 24", oil on canvass, 2009 ~ Exhibited in ISB Gallery, RISD, Fall 2010

Madonna and Child

2010-07-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Last Spring I gave an assignment to my Master Painting Techniques class based on certain conceptions of beauty found in the Renaissance masters. I told them that I was working on a painting that would satisfy the assignment and promised to post an image of the painting when it was complete. So, as promised, Madonna and Child, oil on canvass, 39.5" high by 36.75" wide.

Proportions in Piero della Francesca's The Flagellation of Christ

2010-03-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sir Kenneth Clark listed this painting as one of his ten favorites, referring to it as "the greatest small painting in the world".

A Balthus Quote

2010-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Balthus, Les Beaux Jours (The Golden Days) (1944-1946)

''Art is a metier,'' Balthus declares, having worked himself once more into a lather. ''I don't consider myself an artist. I consider myself a worker. Unfortunately, now this idea seems useless because if you look at modern art you see that now everybody can do everything.'' He shakes his head in disgust. ''And in fact nobody does anything.''

MICHAEL KIMMELMAN, The New York Times,

August 25, 1996

T-SHIRT SOLD OUT!

2010-01-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

I just discovered that the much admired and celebrated Renaissance Beauty t-shirt has completely sold out at Threadless. How will the fashion industry and the economy as a whole deal with this news?

Oh, those lucky fashionistas and haute couture customers that had the prescience to acquire one of those shirts whilst they were still available. As the dollar loses value they will have an investment hidden away in their closets that will provide them (and their heirs) financial security.

http://select.threadless.com/product/1518/Trent_Burleson/Renaissance_Beauty

My Landscape Painting Class On River Drive

2009-11-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

On Public View in February, 2009

2009-02-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

Two Birds Espy will be on view in the RISD Museum

from February 19 to March 15, 2009.

Ideal Beauty - Leonardo Lady With Blue Lingerie Strap

2008-12-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

Oil on canvas 37" by 37"

Some years ago I was researching images for my Master Painting Techniques course and I came across a good reproduction of the angel in Virgin of the Rocks in the National Gallery in London. I decided to take a detail of the angel's face and blow it up to a large scale and paint this painting as an homage to Leonardo da Vinci's genius. To work in the manner of another artist was instructive and rewarding. For example, how many contemporary artists would represent those coiled curls in the manner we see here, with light hitting individual strands of hair?

For website go to burlesonart.com/

2008-12-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

click here http://burlesonart.com

A new t-shirt for Threadless

2008-11-25T06:27:00.000-08:00

"Select Series" curated by RISD President John Maeda

A Balthus Quote

2008-11-23T06:17:00.000-08:00

"I'm not an artist. I am an artisan. The difference is that they have ruined everything. They have poisoned painting with their pretentiousness." Balthus

Red Bird

2008-11-23T06:13:00.000-08:00

A detail of this painting is incorporated into the design of the Home page of Grand Central Gallery. It is also pictured in an interior on the About Us page. The painting is in the personal collection of the gallery owner, Jacqueline Franks.

To see the page, click here: grandcentralgallery.com