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.
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