Website of Oscar Durand, Realist painter from Manchester,New Hampshire, USA. Landscapes, still life's and figurative studies done in the old school method of realistic painting. Mood and emotion are an important element of this work. Oscar uses the effect of light to emphasize the center of interest in his paintings. Although influenced by the old masters, Oscar has developed his own style and technique and continues to paint today. Most paintings are in private collections throughout North America, England and Puerto Rico.
Science and Art have a lot in common. Take one tiny human cell; it not only contains the DNA that is the essence of who we fully are, but it also contains the genetic makeup of those who've gone centuries before us. In the same way, a masterful work of art is the culmination of an artist's life's experiences, his emotions, his ideas, creativity and most importantly, the knowledge that he gains through studying artist masters of the past. Oscar Durand's paintings are uniquely his own, yet his sense of design and technique is based on the solid foundation of artistic knowledge that has been handed down to us embedded in the timeless works of such masters as Carravaggio, Vermeer and Rembrandt.
Many artists can recall a single event, usually in childhood, where the spark of what is called talent is ignited. For Oscar, it was during a visit to the Currier Gallery of Art near his home in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was just 14, but upon viewing an original moody but luminescent landscape by the masterful Rembrandt, he experienced an awakening and compelling recognition of his God - given talent. At that moment he understood that painting would be his life's career.
As a young adult, Oscar searched for an institution that could additionally train him in the techniques used by the old masters. Unfortunately, none existed at that time. So he set out to visit the museum of fine Arts in Boston to study masterful works of fine art first hand. This was an important step to his visual understanding because the original painting's luminosity and brushstrokes cannot be understood when seen on the pages of a book. Oscar continued to study the paintings at the museum until he mastered every technique that the old masters achieved. At the same time, he naturally developed his own style.
Although the influence of the old masters carried Oscar throughout his career, there have been other influences along the way. Oscar enhances his paintings with richer colors and increased luminosity. He employs the sense of atmosphere along with texture to create mood and emotion for the viewer. Oscar uses the effect of light to emphasize the paintings center of interest -- the part of the painting that he wants to make most important. This idea of using light to bring out the center of interest enjoys a long history in classical art. The term for this technique is, "Chiaroscuro", and was introduced to the world through the work of the old master Caravaggio ( 1571 -- 1610 )
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