Richard and Kiry Tiberius are a father and daughter team who paint in oil with the use of palette knives on board. They have mastered an extremely exacting technique that requires upwards of 50 hours of work for each painting. The results are highly textural and detailed works of art.
“We try to tell a story with each painting,” said Richard at a recent exhibit of their work at the Wirtz Gallery in the First National Bank of South Miami.
Their stories are about the purity of nature unaltered by the human hand and celebrate what nature can be without human intervention. The duo has traveled all over Canada, the United States and Australia looking for pristine locations, which they discover while hiking and photographing the native environment.
“All art is political. The artist portrays his or her own point of view,” said Kiry.
Crabapple BlossomsOne of Richard’s paintings, Bald Cypress with Bromeliads, painted in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve, perfectly captures the rough texture of the cypress trees and the sharp, spiky quality of native bromeliads. In the tea-colored water, Richard has managed to show the reflection of the sky and the shadows cast by the cypress trunks. Within the shadow, the bottom of the water can be seen. But this is no ordinary pictorial landscape; the viewer is compelled to examine the painting more closely to study the patterns and rhythms inherent in nature.
Kiry, a trained artist learned the palette painting technique from her father. They work with knives exclusively, applying paint, and building up layers. They do not use brushes.
“She would ask me things like how do you make that branch look rounded. I would show her and in no time at all, she would do it perfectly,” said Richard.
Paintings such as Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and Gallinules, demonstrate Kiry’s skills as both a keen observer and an accomplished translator of the natural world. The grosbeak is perched on a small branch for just a moment and will certainly flitter away in an instant.
Richard is a self-taught artist. For many years he was a medical educator, training doctors how to teach. When he retired from this occupation, he began painting full time.
Thirty Four Geese“He’s not retired from working, really. Painting IS work,” said Kiry.
Kiry studied voice and was an opera singer for a time. However, she found her
passion for artistic expression was strongest as a painter.
Today, she and her father work together in their studio. Here they make and prepare the wooden substrate for their artworks and
create their art.
“We inspire and help each other. And we get along just fine, except maybe for our choices in music,” said Richard.
The Tiberius Art Studio is represented by the RC2 Gallery at Rosenbaum Contemporary in Boca Raton, Austin Artworks in Austin, Texas, and the Coconut Grove Gallery and Interiors in Miami. Visit the art studio online at www.tiberiusart.com for examples of their work and more information.
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