About Debra Claffey
Links
Education
2001 - 2004
University of New Hampshire, Thompson School of Applied Science
1978 - 1981
School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Awards
2020
Second Place Award
2020
Artist Entrepreneurial Grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts
2019
Juror’s Award,
2018
Second Place Award
Monotype (36″36″)
In celebration of the expansive vision and myriad techniques employed by monotype and monoprint artists throughout the United States, the Monotype Guild of New England is pleased to present 100 works of art by 100 artists for it’s 2018 National Juried Exhibition. These prints were selected from over 660 prints submitted by 248 American artists from across 33 states.
2011
Artist Entrepreneurial Grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts
1996
Bank of New Hampshire Award, Ann’s Garden, No. 12, 50th Annual Exhibition, The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
50th Annual Exhibition, The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
There are no upcoming events
Show previous events Hide previous events
Previous events
Event: Syncopated Rhythm: Debra Claffey,
Dates: 10 Jan 2020 - 7 Feb 2020
I use contemplation as a way to focus on ways to restore a balance to our relationship of Human to Nature. Plants and trees are intelligent beings that we have disrespected in so many ways, and we must reconnect. Our roots are in the earth, amid the myriad forms of life in the soil, in the wind, and in the seas.
The exhibition: paintings on panels, made with varying combinations of encaustic, oil, oil and wax, graphite, and other mixed media of plants and foliage, sometimes with still life objects such as a mandolin, cup, pitcher, or chair in the composition. The paintings have lots of drawing in them; I value the hand-drawn line as a carrier of emotion and feeling.
Event: Hidden Lives, Paintings by Debra Claffey
Dates: 3 Mar 2019 - 10 May 2019
Large-scale works for a large atrium. I used the opportunity to stretch and make some really large work, paintings with encaustic, oil and mixed media, up to six feet tall and 12 feet wide.
Event: Elemental: Contemporary Encaustic
Dates: 17 Jul 2018 - 14 Jul 2019
Elemental: Contemporary Encaustic
July 17, 2018–July 14, 2019
Debra Claffey, Patricia Gerkin, Donna Hamil Talman, and Charyl Weissbach make up the four artist collective called Elemental. Working in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the artists of Elemental meld the ancient medium of encaustic, or melted wax, with a modern topic. The pieces in this exhibition explore the human relationship to the natural environment, advocating for a more connected, sustainable approach in the 21st century. The textured surfaces and layered compositions of these pieces sometimes evoke the topography of the earth’s surface, the patterns of plant life, or reinvent the traditional seascape painting.
Event: Organic to Geometric: Investigations in Structure and Surface
Dates: 25 May 2018 - 24 Jun 2018
This exhibition explores the wide-ranging investigations of 25 artists, into the use of materiality in painting, printmaking, and sculpture. The primary medium that binds this group of artists is wax. Curator Carol Pelletier originally conceived of this idea at the first Organic to Geometric show at the Heftler Gallery at Endicott College in 2015. From hard-edged abstractions to gritty organic surfaces, to sophisticated pattern to suspended natural structures, the show represents a perspective that reveals varied processes while carrying conceptual depth.
Event: Fifth National Monotype/Monoprint Juried Exhibition
Dates: 6 May 2018 - 2 Sep 2018
FIFTH NATIONAL MONOTYPE /MONOPRINT JURIED EXHIBITION
AT THE ART COMPLEX MUSEUM: MAY 6 – SEPTEMBER 2, 2018
“The monotype expresses the emotion of the artist in a way that no other medium does. Through monotypes, we have insights into the artist’s soul. One has only to survey the monotypes I have selected for this exhibition to see how the feelings of artists infuse the works and give them their impact.” – Judith Brodsky, Juror
100 works of art by 100 artists. Indigo Ice, #6 was Second Place Award winner.
Event: Paintings with Drawing
Dates: 1 Nov 2016 - 9 Dec 2016
A solo exhibition of more than 23 works on panel, featuring plant forms and foliage in an expressive and abstract form. The exhibition photos can be viewed at this link: http://debraclaffey.com/2017/05/14/paintings-with-drawing/
An exhibition catalog is available at blurb.com: http://www.blurb.com/b/7443573-paintings-with-drawing
Event: Breaking Boundaries
Dates: 2 Jan 2014 - 26 Jan 2014
Fountain Street Fine Art, Framingham, MA. Jurors: Sara Zela and Lauren O’Neal.
Biography
Visual songs. Excursions into color, form, and texture. Music is visual for me and the visual is musical. I combine opacity and translucence, scribbled line against an illusion of depth, thick surfaces with pale washes, sometimes carving and scraping back to reveal buried layers. Each piece becomes an exploration of the tensions between flat surface and pictorial depth.
My subject is plant foliage, sometimes with everyday objects from my life as a professional landscape gardener, arranged to accentuate their varied forms and shapes in complex compositions--orchestrations of light and dark, shape and rhythm.
