Donald Purdy (1884-1972)
Purdy was born five years before the 29 Crash, in Connecticut. The Depression influenced greatly Purdy’s personality and development. Later in his life, Purdy said that the austere conditions of the Depression years would help him face the austerity of an artist’s life.
His career as an artist began in abstract painting and later moved into combining the abstract mode with representational subject matter. Purdy continuously experimented with many means of expression. In the 1970’s and early 1980’s his palette was influenced by the Barbizon painters, but his technique combined the abstract with the tight Realist approach.
In the 1980s, Purdy’s work evolved into an Impressionist style. He felt he found a technique and a way of painting that was unrestrained and very successful pictorially. His best known work is of beach scenes using a combination of people against solid blocks of sky, sand and water. Impressionism allows him to paint free and abstractly with the end result pleasing to the eye.
Usually there is a sense of reflection and solitude and a certain peacefulness to be found in his paintings. His work reflects his desire to portray what he would want life to provide. His Impressionistic works are in many corporate, museum, and private collections.
Source: Abby M Taylor Fine Art.
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