Malcolm Tuffnell has been a captive of the magic of ballet from a young age. Tuffnell’s work evokes the fantasy world of the ballet stage, through his own poetic
interpretations of the great ballets, such as the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, La Sylphide, and
Giselle. The works are not meant to literally depict dancers and the ballet from a realist
perspective, a la Degas, but rather from an imaginary vie
wpoint, as if one were in a
romantic landscape of the mind, populated by swan ballerinas, clowns, and dancing
snowflakes. In these densely painted works, layers of opaque paint are overlaid with other layers of
transparent paint or glazes, in the manner of the Old Masters, creating a dense inner
glow, a poetic atmosphere that communicates to the viewer the emotion of the dance. Malcolm Tuffnell is a midcareer talent in contemporary painting, now in his 35th year
of painting. He describes his work as “romantic impressionism”. Tuffnell attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and studied with noted
teacher Gary Brown; while going to school there he traveled to Europe, where he was
inspired to a life as an artist. He attended the prestigious School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, graduating with
honors. At the School he won the Liquitex Fine Arts Materials Award in 1987. Returning
to his birthplace, Santa Barbara, he took first prize at the Best of the Best of Santa
Barbara County in 1991. The artist would like to thank Dusty and Kathleen Davison of Los Angeles, CA for their
material support of this exhibition. Tuffnell has shown in many galleries in California and Massachusetts, including
Founder’s Room, Granada Theater, Santa Barbara; Tah Gallery, Pasadena; Visions
Gallery, Morro Bay; Gallery 333, North Falmouth, MA; the Orlando Gallery, Los
Angeles;; Spectrum Gallery, Sacramento; Goldfield Galleries, Los Angeles; Galerie at
Newport Beach; and Art Brut, Los Alamos. He is a longtime member of the Santa
Barbara Art Association. Next year his ballet-themed work has been selected to be
exhibited at the prestigious Thousand Oaks Center for the Performing Arts. He can be contacted via email at tuffnellarts @ hotmail.com, on Facebook at Malcolm
Tuffnell Art Studio, on the web at yessy.com, or by phone: (805) 965-8950.
