From Spain to Virginia The Life and Times of Pierre Daura - Catalog - Page 34
suggested through fragmentary shards and shattered planes
that capture the dynamism of multiple viewpoints and
breakdown of one-point-perspective.
Daura’s Virginia landscapes exhibit a lighter and more
fluid palette that takes full advantage of the medium of
watercolor on paper, an overall effect that carries through
into the artist’s paintings in oil on canvas. In the image
Mohler Farm in Snow, Rockbridge Baths of 1941, the blues
of tin-roofed sheds and distant mountains contrast with the
pinks of an evening sky that is reflected in snow-covered
hills. Where the wintry snowfall has begun to melt, a
muddy patch of greenish grass is visible in the foreground.
In contrast, the watercolor on paper entitled Mohler Barn,
Rockbridge Baths of 1955-1970 revels in the varied greens
of dense summer foliage punctuated by the golden browns
of dusty rural dirt roads and aging barn siding. In autumn
scenes, vibrant colors – burnt reds, citrus oranges, canary
yellows, brilliant golds – intermix with green pastures
and blue skies to create the most exuberant and skillful
chromatic explorations of Daura’s oeuvre. Each separate
brushstroke of vividly colored pigment is clearly evident,
and the viewer’s gaze can easily trace the process of the
artist putting watercolor-laden brush to paper. Every daub
of pigment takes on a separate and independent existence.
Among the most abstracted landscapes on view, Mabry Mill
of 1955-1970 presents a fireworks-like display of boisterous
color in which pigments visually dance and play across the
paper’s surface. Here, color breaks free and blends together
in a joyful and exuberant rendition of the fall season’s
beauty.
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Top: Children in the Old Village, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, ca. 1958
Oil on canvas
Taubman Museum of Art
Gift of Martha Randolph Daura, 2003.020
Bottom: Mohler Barn, Rockbridge Baths, 1955-1970
Watercolor on paper
Daura Museum of Art, University of Lynchburg
Gift of Martha R. Daura
Right: Mohler Farm in Snow, Rockbridge Baths (detail) , 1941
Tempera on paper
Taubman Museum of Art
Gift of Martha Randolph Daura, 2003.051
