Grier Torrence P’21, ’23

Paint-smudged wooden easels. High ceilings. Five hundred square feet of northwest-facing windows. A thicket of potted plants. Olin 213 is where creative magic happens, overseen and encouraged by Art Department Chair Grier Torrence.

Mr. Torrence, who came to Miss Porter’s in 1998 to teach painting, drawing and printmaking, is the school’s longest-serving faculty member and the Margaret How Wallace ’27 Teaching Chair. When he’s not teaching, he can usually be found working in the corner of the classroom with oil paints and brushes ready on a shelf behind his desk.

Although he holds degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and the Yale University School of Art and has been a working artist for decades, Mr. Torrence wants students to see him wrestle with his own challenges while he paints. Even if you’re a pro who has been featured in 36 group exhibitions and 23 solo shows, as he has, it’s still difficult to make art.

Students are welcome in the studio classroom anytime, and being there with them is always the high point of his day, said Mr. Torrence, who advises the Art Club. He calls the students “bright and inspiring and courageous” and fondly recalls the year when his advisees gifted him with self-portraits they made for his birthday.

“A lot of what I try to do is have every student feel loved and treasured,” he said about his approach to pedagogy. “I try to help each person grow, like the plants I brought from Brooklyn all those years ago. Give them everything they need. Sunshine and good nutrients, which for an educator are special attention to the particular person and their needs.”

01 RAW MATERIAL

When I’m not working, I’m painting. Oil paint is intrinsically beautiful.

02 TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Can’t work without these!

03 AFRICAN MASKS

I bought these masks from a vendor outside the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I like that African art is all about geometry and construction.

04 CHESS, ANYONE?

One of my favorite pastimes.

05 AFRICAN INSTRUMENT

The language of all the arts is about intervals, harmonics and things beneath the surface.

06 BOOKSHELF

A wonderful collection of art books, catalogs and rarities.