Terry Rafferty

Terry Rafferty has had a lifelong interest in art, with childhood memories of attending museum shows with her father and entering her first art competition at the age of 8.  Setting art aside to have a family and career in nursing, she ultimately returned to art, training in metalsmithing at the California College of Arts, and going on to get a BA in Visual Arts in Vermont.  Her work ranges from highly detailed realism using ‘Old Master’ techniques to urban abstraction, mixing cold wax into the paint and working with industrial tools rather than brushes.  Her love of telling stories in her art currently has her exploring myths and fairytales, playing with life beyond the ordinary. 

Terry is pleased to be represented by galleries on both the east and west coasts, and has received awards for her work, including Best in Show from Oil Painters of America.

Artist's Statement:  Using real-life issues, I use my paintings to comment on situations through a visual narrative. The objects and creatures I include are treasures I’ve picked up along the way - a particular head tilt or lifted paw can inspire a number of paintings. Once I find the story I want to tell, the challenge of getting the concept from my head onto the canvas remains the most satisfying part of the process. Each painting has personal meaning, but I encourage viewers to pick up a thread of the story and weave it into their own experiences.

From a creative point of view, I find the intensity of the detailed narrative paintings is best tempered with work that is looser and more poetic in nature.  Most recently I have combined the two ways of working into a new series that considers the interactions between humans and animals.  I draw on my own experiences to create the narrative, sometimes using the absence of humans to comment on our negative impact, other times using children to show more balanced, hopeful possibilities.