ARTS
REVEL IN THE DETAILS
ARTWORK PROVIDED
SWEET DREAMSCAPES ARE MADE OF THESE BY REBECCA RAFFERTY
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hile taking in one of Andrea Durfee’s vibrant watercolor or acrylic paintings that seamlessly, almost imperceptibly, blend human forms with landscapes, it’s hard to believe she just wings it. No preliminary sketches. No color studies.
40 CITY MARCH 2021
BECCA@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM
“If I have the impulse, then I’ll sit down and just sketch on the actual canvas or the paper and go from there,” Durfee says. “The first thing that’s laid out is the figure, and then I build the landscape around it. So it’s very much paying attention to the body
positioning, and what emotion that is communicating.” The human figures are subtly embedded into sweeping backdrops of nature. A reclining woman becomes a mountain range. A woman curled up resembles a boulder. A woman
lounging dissolves into the dunes around her. They are sleeping giants, at one with the natural world. She has so skillfully placed the figures that, at a glance, it’s easy to miss them. In some works, the figure is purposely prominent. She may be
