Teal Sky, 30 x 40 inches, oil on canvas.
65
IN HIS newest portrait series, fondly referred to as “the sky ladies,”
Duff is exploring the meeting place between his two favored
painting modes. In these pieces, he experiments with double
exposure, a photo technique that superimposes multiple expo-sures
into a single image. This was a fairly common accident in the
early days of photography when exposure times were much longer,
and even gave rise to the “spirit photography” of the 19th century.
In these paintings, figures emerge from and coexist with bright,
marshy sunsets and matte blue, open skies. Duff incorporates
this technique by using a projector to lay portraits in profile on
top of nature photographs. The effect of the whimsical mashup
is a mysterious, meditative scene reminiscent of a dreamscape. It
invites the viewer to consider the connection between natural and
human elements and encourages a psychological reading of the
person depicted.
Duff has just started work on this series, and it promises to be a
fascinating and beautiful combination of his artistic strengths.
In many ways, art is an intellectual exercise for Duff, who pushes
himself to try new techniques and think seriously about what he
is making. But it is also a crucial mechanism to express emotions,
experiences, and ideas that are beyond words, and one of his
favorite reactions to his paintings is “I don’t know why I love it, but
I just do.”
“That feeling really resonates with me,” he says. “For me, visual
expression is the greatest form of emotional expression; it’s the
greatest catharsis and I think that goes all the way back to when
I was a kid. My language development was a little bit slow and
drawing was always a refuge for me. There’s a lot more in my head
than what I can get out in words. I don’t always understand why
I’m so passionate about what I’m seeing when I look at art, but it
connects to something deep within me. When I hear a client say,
‘I can’t express why I like it, I just do,’ that means so much more to
me. It makes me feel like we’re connected on that next level, and
that is so rewarding.”
Duff is both an exceptionally creative and emotional painter and
a thoughtful, conscientious thinker. His paintings reveal a meticu-lous
and thorough hand and exude genuine awe and love of the
world around us.
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