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Ursula O’Farrell
Figurative Abstractions
by Peter Selz
Looking Back, oil on linen, 60" x 48", 2008
Back in the 1950’s a group of painters in the San Francisco Bay Area established what came to be known as Bay Area Figurative Painting. Originally David Park, Elmer Bischoff and Richard Diebenkorn, painters who had all done abstract pictures, decided to embark on figuration which was indebted to abstract gesture painting, but looked again the world of appearances for their subjects. They even painted from the life model which simply was not done by the Abstract Expressionists. A second generation, Joan Brown, Manuel Neri, Bruce McGaw and others made this new approach to painting (or sculpting) the human figure, into their own and endowed it with a new spirit. Ursula O’Farrell can be said to represent a third generation which includes Christopher Brown and Roger Hermann. She has made this tradition as the source of her own work. It is important that she looked beyond her immediate environment. She spent a seminal year in Florence and another in Germany and she took a long look at Matisse’s paintings of women and learned how to fuse figuration with abstraction.
O’Farrell has focused her painting almost entirely on the depiction of women, reflecting no doubt a concern about her own identity. These canvases are done by an artist who has absorbed the lessons of Action Painting and are done with a vigorous brush, probably also with a palette knife and a trowel with lush paint slathered on to the support. Some may seem unrestrained at first look, but they follow their own order – as a 17th Century Chinese landscape painter once said: “The brush is for saving the world from chaos.” Her women, lost in thought, seated, lying, waiting, praying, dancing are all self-absorbed. Above all, they are her reasons for painting.
Looking Back (2008) pictures a woman looking into space. The painting makes us think of Hans Hoffmann with the paint slashed on with loaded brush, creating agitated vibrating surfaces from which the figure seems to emerge. Mood Swing (2007) depicts a girl stretched on a beach chair. The red patches on her head and body and the light and dark blue sky can be seen as a dialogue between red and blue. In Vista Del Mar (2008) the artist has used the same color scheme, but the painting is much more abstract – it is indeed “Figurative Abstraction”. In the final analysis, as in much figurative painting, the viewer sees these paintings not just as a conversation between colors, but as a dialogue between painter and model.
Peter Selz
Berkeley, California (2008)
Vista del Mar, oil on canvas, 48" x 48," 2008
Mood Swing, oil on panel, 18 x 24, 2007 Private Collection
Art Museum of Los Gatos
PRESS RELEASE
(July, 2007) (Los Gatos, CA) Opening August 9, 2007 and running through October 13 is “Pursuit of Beauty: New Figurative Abstractions by Ursula O’Farrell” at the Art Museum of Los Gatos. On view are 29 recent oil paintings by O’Farrell that incorporate the female figure and explore variations of color, distinctive brushwork, textured surfaces and gestural marks. Her provocative work evokes the California Bay Area figurative art movement that emerged in the early 1950s with visionaries such as Elmer Bischoff, David Park and Richard Diebenkorn. O’Farrell’s unique style builds upon this rich heritage. Primarily an abstract figure painter based in Aptos, California, O’Farrell combines the emotional content of Expressionism with a contemporary palette infused with the light and shadows found within her seaside surroundings.
Working from life, Ursula O’Farrell’s pursuit of beauty begins with an open heart, ready to explore the inner workings of what lies within the human figure posed before her. “I do not try to render with my eye, but instead, I seek to interpret and express what is felt from within me — from a place of soul.”
Ursula O’Farrell is a California contemporary artist with a strong background in abstract figurative painting. Her formal studies began with a bachelor’s degree in painting from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. During her junior year, she studied in Italy through Gonzaga University in Florence. Upon graduation, Ursula received the prestigious Eugene Escalier Foreign Study Scholarship for independent study focused on German and Austrian Expressionism. Later, she received a master’s degree in painting and drawing from San Jose State University in San Jose, California.
Education
Loyola Marymount University, B.A., Painting and Drawing, cum laude (1980 – 1984)
Gonzaga University-in-Florence, Jr-Year Abroad Program, Florence, Italy (1982 - 1983)
Eugene Escalier Foreign Study Scholarship, German/Austrian Expressionism (1984)
San Jose State University, M.A., Painting and Drawing, (1987 - 1989)
2008 Select Exhibitions
"New Images of Woman: Figurative Abstractions by Ursula O'Farrell," Solo Show, Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
"New Images of Woman," Stanford Art Spaces, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Monotype Marathon 2008, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
Members Show, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2007 Select Exhibitions
Pursuit of Beauty, Solo Show, Art Museum of Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA
Pursuit of Beauty, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Solo Show, San Jose, CA
New Approaches to the Figure, Solo Show, Michaelangelo Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA
Layerings, Group Show, NIDO Gallery, Moss Landing, CA
New Paintings, Two-Person Show, Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
Exemplary Contemporary 2007: The Sea Around Us: Depictions and Imaginings, Juried Show, Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, Cowell College, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Finding the Stillness Within: Recent Figurative Work by Ursula O’Farrell, Solo Show, The Arte Junction, Winters, CA
The National Figurative Exhibit, Juried Show, Santa Cruz Art League, Santa Cruz, CA
Down By the Sea: 1907 – 2007, Invitational Show, Santa Cruz County Bank Arts Collaborative, Santa Cruz, CA
Group Show, Lisa Coscino Gallery, Pacific Grove, CA
Berkeley Art Center, Members' Showcase, Group Show, Berkeley, CA
2006 Select Exhibitions
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club 110th Annual Open Juried Exhibition, Juried Show, National Arts Club, New York, NY
Expressions West, Juried Show, Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR
Elementals: Earth, Air, Fire & Water, Juried Show, Lauryn Taylor Fine Art, Carmel, CA
The Art of Painting, Juried Show, Santa Cruz Art League, Santa Cruz, CA
Ricochet: Art by LMU Alumni, Juried Show, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
Nudes and Apparel, Juried Show, Michaelangelo Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA
 
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