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Barbara Tiffany: Artist Oral History Interview

ABOVE: “Bobby Sox” by award winning Florida artist Barbara Tiffany.

Award winning artist Barbara Tiffany is Director of the Painting and Drawing Department and Curator of Exhibitions at Crealde School of Art. She has an outstanding legacy of contribution in Florida as a fine artist and an art educator. Her reputation for inspiring artists is extraordinary. In this oral history interview with Barbara Tiffany we learn about her life path as an artist in Florida, what inspires her, educates, and sustains her creative growth. 

Barbara Tiffany, born in Coronado, California, 1950. We were Navy so we moved right away to Hawaii and then Texas, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida was in 1957 and then Sanford, Florida in 1959 and been in the neighborhood ever since. I grew up in Sanford, Florida….

LISTEN Part I (20:01)

 

Where did you first connect with art? What were some of your first art experiences?

Kindergarten. I can see it clearly in my mind. I got to illustrate an old world map on the bulletin board. And I did the drawings of the sea dragons of those kind of maps, the ships, and the compass and it was pretty exciting and I walked out and it was like an old house. And I walked out down the steps and I knew I was going to be an artist, I didn’t know, but I wanted it. I knew I wanted to be one and my path never changed.

Did your parents encourage you or did you have teachers?

My mother. She was creative, but in a different way. She did crafts. She encouraged the creative process all the time and I always had paper and colored pencils. Art classes were very limited in Sanford, none in elementary school, junior high. I have no memory of art in junior high and only one class in high school. But I always did art on my own. And in high school after 10th grade to go to advanced art – no one else wanted to so they stopped the program

The Sanford Herald.

So the teachers knowing what I liked put me on the high school paper as the art editor. And that created the rest of my life because my first job out of high school was the Sanford Herald as the artist for the art department. I’ve been lucky. I didn’t get to go to college, but my education was the road, on the job training. I had great jobs and in 1982 stopped doing commercial art to be a fine artist….  

Tell us about when you first started to connect with nature.

As a child we grew up going to Rock Springs. My mother and I would go to the woods. I was fearless in the woods. I’d go barefoot, walking in the creeks. There were snakes, there were things, but I didn’t really care. I grew up in the woods and I loved it. I was really comfortable. So it’s always been observing and my intent when I would paint the water series in the creeks would be to show people how beautiful something is that they might not otherwise notice….

When did you start with the ad agency?

That would have been 1970 in a little boat house on a lake. But because of that job, that was TV and print before Disney. I had to do an illustration for a Disney cover for a magazine. Yeah, that was before Disney, but got laid off two years into that. There were some times when I was not in the art field. I was a dental assistant and I worked for a hotel. But the biggest one after that would have been Channel 35, the old Channel 35 before it is what it is now. Because working for the ad agency the art director saw my portfolio and she used to work for them and that’s how I got the job. But they were shut down. Broke my heart. And then I went to work for a printer which really became what I did until I stopped being a commercial artist. And that was my education. Because seven years with printers and learning all aspects of it, my final real job was with an ad agency. He didn’t know printing so it was good. But there was a time when my husband at that time, when we decided when I would be a full time artist because I was doing the art shows by then with colored pencil work. And it was doing well and I was teaching so I had to make a decision….

There weren’t art classes for you in school… did you check out books?

Good question. I did a lot of illustration for commercial art and freelance so I always found a way to reference subject matter without copying it. But I was always trying things. If I’d see a leaf I liked the distortion of it I’d copy it. And I have a lot of patience. I have a lot of patience. And when I started to do the shows I was getting images from the slides I’d taken and you’d look through this view finder and you could see it. Doing the shows, the fellow that was running the department drawing and graphics and he was an instructor at a school and I asked for a critique and he said, “Stop using black.” And I did. And probably the next year in the same show with new work I beat him. And he said, “I’m never going to give you a critique again.”

“Mood Indigo” a painting by award winning Florida artist Maury Hurt.

Light

It’s funny. You just learn as you go and you listen and observe, but everything boils down to taking classes with Maury Hurt because he taught me about light. That changed everything. I was teaching colored pencil. Technique was good. Subject matter. Storytelling even with colored pencil. But boy when light came into the picture my own students then wanted to start. I started teaching them what he was teaching me and it just snowballed. And I wanted to learn to paint classically and I wouldn’t trade that time for the world because it just changed everything. How I look at things, how I teach, how I do my own work. I get sort of too excited about showing people things when the sun’s out. A lot of observation classes….

I understand you took private classes with Maury Hurt?

Right. It was for ten months. I started out on Tuesday afternoons, you know “Tuesdays with Morrie”, the movie? Well, I actually had Tuesdays with Maury the same. He would set up still lifes from life, different things and he’d go to lunch. And I’m sitting there working in the kitchen. I was very quiet. And because I was quiet he’d let me come back on other days. I didn’t pester him or get in his way. And I learned, my first still life took three months. It was very difficult, but it turned out okay. Then there’d be other things and me setting up my own still life. But I’m still learning. And the time that I was not teaching I would still go to his house and paint because it was extraordinary.

“Blue Bottle With Mirrors” by Barbara Tiffany, oil on linen, 16 x 20 inches 

And he would come to my studio at the Maitland Art Center and I was doing a life size portrait of him, seven foot tall painting, having trouble with the drapery, his slacks and his shirt. And getting frustrated with that because after so many paintings and times of lessons you’d think I would know things. And it wasn’t coming together and there was a moment when I did his glasses hanging off a string off his shirt and everything came together that time. Everything he taught me and I realized what I’m doing is taking something three dimensional making it two dimensional to look three dimensional. And every stroke I did was correct and I got so overwhelmed I took 15 minutes. I couldn’t paint anymore. So after that everything fell into place on how quickly it went. It doesn’t mean I still don’t have problems. But just doing and paying attention instead of just having fun. Sure it’s fun, but you got to pay attention and think. And so that helped a lot. Even with my students all those little things come back.

You have quite a reputation for inspiring and encouraging students… and you’re very giving to other artists… colleagues talk about your high level of caring and giving in our community that’s just extraordinary…. When did that start?

At the art shows. It was the art shows that had me start teaching because I could do this technique with colored pencils that nobody else was doing. They’d come in and ask me how did I do it? So I spent all the time telling them how I did it. It’s all about to me sharing because it’s exciting. If someone else thinks it’s exciting you share a piece of cake and tell them what recipe it is. That’s how it’s supposed to be. And finally someone said you need to start teaching. Okay. And so it was proposed to the Maitland Art Center and I started a class and I’ve never looked back.

John Singer Sargent

There was a time I stopped teaching because of some big commissions and they were very nice. I actually got to do a reproduction of a John Singer Sargent for Greg Norman’s clubhouse in Hope Sound and that came to me through Maury because his brother Pete Hurt is a painter. And he was asked first and he said, “No, I don’t want to do that. Give it to Maury.” And Maury says, “Well, I don’t want to do that let’s give it to Barbara.” So I got the job and it was very nice. And then after that more commissions came in to me and so I stopped teaching for a while.

And they kept asking me to come back because I had one class for 13 years and it was the same people and it was like a club. And they’d tease that somebody had to die before there was a spot available. It was great and it was fun. And I’d leave even a night class inspired because they’re so happy and we’re all sharing the same thing.

Were the people that took the class professional artists?

It was everything. I had day classes and night classes. At one time I had five classes. I was even teaching paystuff. This was back before computers when you talk about paystuff. That was a highly technical class and it was hard for people because of the language of printing. But I had all the tools verbally and in hand to teach that process. Some of my regular art students went into that class and asked to come back to colored pencil because it was too hard. But as I said when I was learning from Maury those students wanted to switch to painting. They actually learned faster because Maury didn’t quite communicate in a way that made it easy to understand.

Art History

But I did learn a lot of art history through Maury. He’d show me books and I started collecting books. Like Sargent was the first book he shared with me so I went out and bought one. All of the masters, Rembrandt, they were all important. So I accumulate quite a lot of books in reading about them and have my students do the same because we need that knowledge. The visuals of seeing their work and I’ve been able to go to Washington and New York to see the paintings in person. I had seen the one I created for Greg Norman in person. I had a photograph of it. So that was just an honor to do that. Of course, you don’t sign it, get any credit for it.

I learned. I actually feel like Sargent was one of my teachers by getting to recreate one of his. Also, Orlando Museum of Art got to copy a Renoir from life because the piece was going to a museum and the family wanted a copy. So I was next to it looking at every brush stroke and every color from that. I’m just honored to get to do these things and lucky along the way.

There is a long list of your awards and commissions…

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Arts on Douglas, New Smyrna Beach, Florida – 2004, 2008, 2012

Lake Eustis Museum of Art, Eustis, Florida – 2012

The Maitland Art Center, Maitland, Florida – 2008

Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida – 2005

Atlantic Center for the Arts at Harris House, New Smyrna Beach, Florida – 2002

Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama – 1998

Selected Group and Two-Person Exhibits

Salon International Competition, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, Texas – 2011, 2012, 2013

The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida – 2011

Florida Museum of Women Artists, DeLand, Florida – 2011

Albin Polasek Museum, Winter Park, Florida — 2007

Daytona Beach Art League, Daytona Beach, Florida – 2004

Orlando Shakespeare Festival Theatre, Orlando, Florida – 2002

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, Orlando Florida – 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

Casselberry City Hall, Casselberry, Florida – 2001, 2010

Lake County Court House, Tavares, Florida – 2000

DeLand Museum of Art, DeLand, Florida – 1999, 2001

University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida – 1996

Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama – 1996

Orlando City Hall, Orlando, Florida – 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002

Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida – 1995, 2003, 2004

Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida – 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995

The Maitland Art Center, Maitland, Florida – 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2010

Selected Awards

2012 – Jury’s Top Fifty, Salon International, International Museum of Contemporary Masters of Fine Art, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, Texas

2009 – Best in Show, “Faces 2009,” a juried exhibition, Henegar Center for the Arts, Melbourne, Florida

2006 – Purchase Award, Maitland Art Center, Maitland, Florida

1999 – Individual Artist Recognition Award, Orlando, Florida

1997 – Second Place, Ridge Art Association, Winter Haven, Florida

1996 – Third Place, Wiregrass Biennial, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama

1991 – Mary Hulitar Award, 53rd Annual National Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, Society of The Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida

Selected Collections

Church Street Station, Orlando, Florida

Commission for permanent corporate collection at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida

Commission for permanent collection at Seminole Community College, lake Mary, Florida

Purchase for permanent collection Orlando City Hall, Orlando, Florida

Commission and purchases for the permanent collection Wall Street Marketing Inc., Orlando, Florida

Commission for permanent corporate collection McCree Architects, Orlando, Florida

Commission for permanent corporate collection Roger Holler Family, Winter Park, Florida

Commission for permanent corporate collection at Maitland Art Center, Maitland, Florida

Purchases for the permanent collection Gannett Publishing

Purchase for the permanent corporate collection of The medalist Club, Greg Norman, Hobe Sound, Florida

Commission for the permanent collection Radford University Art Museum, Radford, Virginia

Purchase for the permanent collection of Texas A&M

Plus many private collections throughout the United States, as well as Colombia and Sweden.

There are some obviously not in Florida, but it still looks like there’s a lot happening in Florida….

Yes, there’s always a call for people to submit works for government, new buildings going up. They have a budget for art whether it’s sculptural or interior or who knows what. Right now there’s a job out there for several hundred thousand dollars if you’re a large sculptor. And other people are doing things through commission for the Sun Rail for different stops. I hear about a lot of things. I’m not participating because I really don’t have the time. But there’s a lot out there and there’s more growth. There’s certainly the world of I’m opening a restaurant can you hang your work in there?  And I actually have work in an eye doctor’s office right now. I know it will never sell. I don’t care. But he’s near Crealde and he came walking in my class one day. He’s an eye doctor and wanted art on his walls and these are pieces that are not going to sell. They haven’t sold, but it’s part of a series I did a tropical series. They fit the bill and I really don’t mind. But other people do that kind of thing in hopes of selling. I don’t know if that happens very often, but I don’t expect it.

But there’s a place in I-Drive Tu Tu Tango’s I think still exists and they have artists that come in and paint while people are eating. They do well. There’s other venues for artists as well. There’s not a lot in local museums for local artists to show, but at Crealde we try to do that and Maitland often does that.

Do you think that might change?

That would be great because they used to. Maury had two solo shows there in the time I knew him.

LISTEN Part II (17:22)

 

Orlando City Hall

Through the Orlando City Hall I have a couple of pieces there. One was a commission and Frank Holt was the director then of that. And now he’s out at the Mennello Museum. But they acquired a painting that was John Singer Sargent School not Mr. Sargent himself but a student. But it did look like that style and they wanted a companion piece for that. A female companion painting and they liked Madame X that Sargent did. And I had to present a bid and a drawing to the mayor, Mayor Glenda Hood at the time, for approval of the dress and it had to be family friendly. And that’s fine. I had a model friend of mine and somebody else had the dress and I set up this whole thing. And the painting that the city owned was a man with his arms crossed looking very stern, straight at the viewer if you will. And me liking to tell a story, I had her looking away. Her hand was on the table and there was a rose there. And so, she’s refusing his intent. And it would be across the hall from him. It was fun….

Orlando Center for the Arts in New Symrna Beach

Through Orlando Center for the Arts in New Symrna  Beach they have an annual fundraiser and I donated a commission whatever somebody wanted. And I like to do a portrait of a person without them in it. And the people that bid on it let me come to their condo and look at things and they’d tell me the story of it. They’d let me pick out the items that would tell their story. And they didn’t want to see the set up. They didn’t want to see the progress. They just let me do what I wanted which was a dream job and they had an unveiling and they were very happy. I’ve been lucky that people trust me if you will….

Storytelling

Before Maury I was already storytelling in my colored work, but it became more so after he – well this painting I own of his is storytelling. But I just expanded on it and I encouraged the students to. Even this landscape, there’s a clock over here a friend made for my husband and he wanted me to put a painting in it. And I did a landscape and in it are the number of people in his family and the connection they have with each other. Like here’s three trees and here’s one tree by itself. One of their son’s has gone off this way and the family’s gone this way and even that can be storytelling. But it’s not always intended but sometines it comes up later the story that was told unbeknownst to me. You know you count the objects in a piece and that could be the number of people in your family. A vase of flowers. Count them. It could be your age or your children. And that’s good for other people when there’s a story attached. I did a portrait of two twins and the symbolism was all through there. The parents had no idea you could do that...

Maitland Art Center

I had a studio there. I was granted that. And my husband at that time was on the board and he was an artist. When we were just friends he took me to a show there, a photography show. Boy that’s a long time ago, and I loved it. I had never been there. Eventually the woman in the studio there, number five… the studio was going to be renovated and she was not going to come back. So I put in an application to the director to be there and how you pay rent is you do tours. You’re there like a job 9-5 kind of thing. Volunteer time in other ways and donate and I was happy to do all that to be there… And so many opportunities came to me by being there. Because they called me up looking for a portrait artist and this or that… That was in ’87. I was taking lessons with Maury in ’86 and I knew the studio was going to be mine when it was ready. So I went from Maury, being his student, into the studio. And it was 2009 when I stopped being there…

Working at Home

I knew my work would change. It was difficult working at home, but my husband was working and I had lots of time to learn and get used to be home. But it was pretty neat. It was easy then, too. Because I was teaching there and all my supplies were in my studio. I didn’t have to drive them back and forth. But I got involved with office things. Anything they needed help with I started organizing workshops there. And that brought in some money there which was pretty nice. That was fun. And I’m still – the fellow that I organized from the student’s league in New York I bring him now to Crealde.

Orlando: One of the Most Creative Cities

But it’s a huge art community and everyone sort of interacts with each other. We’re all fighting for the students or the shows or the work, but there’s still plenty of work because I get lots of calls. And I pass it on to a lot of local artists that are here. There’s a lot of good ones out here. And it’s a friendly group. It’s not too competitive. It’s pretty nice. And I think recently somebody told me in the paper, Orlando, Central Florida is number three as far as being one of the most creative cities. So good time to be an artist in Central Florida. But it always has been for me. It’s a matter of what you want.

Crealde

I’ve been there three years after I was through at Maitland, I was here. I wanted to teach again because I was teaching in Vero Beach going down twice a month and that was a little difficult, but I did it. Because I have a friend down there with a studio and gallery. She was actually my student at Maitland and when I stopped teaching she wanted to continue… when she and her family moved I started going back and forth teaching. And after a year or two I figured it was too much time away… and so that would be a once a year week long workshop. But I wanted to continue teaching locally so I submitted to Crealde and there wasn’t space at the time. But Henry Sims called me, he was the Director of Painting and Drawing, to take over a Crealde Class. The woman was taking a leave of absence and I said, “Yes.” I was not an acrylic painter, but I had six weeks. I got all the paints and started practicing and you can accomplish anything if you work at it.

Independent Study

So I did that and eventually became, what I like is teaching independent study. Where the students are doing many different things not just one thing. And so it’s acrylic and oil and that’s what I do. It’s been good. But Henry got sick and they asked would I step in his place and take over the department. So since then, that’s been about a year, I guess. So since then, my list of things I get to do has been added on top of and curating and a lot of things. And, it’s as if my entire adult life has prepared me for this. Because I can design brochures and I look at the empty gallery like a canvas. And I measure and I can predetermine a show before it goes up. I love it. But I still have to teach. I have one class Friday morning and I leave there so happy. But then I have the two workshops. There’s one at the Dude Ranch in Colorado and one in Vero Beach which is next week actually. And that’s kind of fun.

Crealde Director of Painting and Drawing

Yes, I’m senior curator and there seems like there’s other things. It’s all lumped together and I enjoy it a lot. It’s a great team to work with. Everybody has many layers of work they do and we all get it done at the same time and work together really well. It’s a busy place, but it shows. It’s certainly different from Maitland, but Maitland’s unique in it’s own way. And I’ll always honor Maitland because of 22 years there. I can’t believe it. What a sensation. But then again, I’m lucky.

Art Classes at Crealde School of Art and Maitland Art Center

Oh, there’s beginning classes on many different levels and in different areas. And I always say to people who think they want it, “Try it.” You fail by not trying and usually they like it. Because it is exciting to do something creative. You forget what you’re doing somewhere else because you’re doing this. Oh, is it time to go already? And they get hooked. And there’s levels you can go through of achievement. It depends on how hard you work. The two schools Maitland and Crealde both are that way. You certainly have the colleges, but you know, some people don’t want a college course. They want more of a hobby course. But there’s, in both of these institutions you can go as far as you want. You can become an advanced artist then move on to becoming an exhibiting artist. It depends on what you want…. 

“In Progress” by Barbara Tiffany, oil on linen, 20 X 24 inches

Art is for Everyone

I had an 89 year old student and she was amazing! I just, everyone loved her because she went around encouraging everybody and she had this salty, little husky voice. She was from New Jersey and she was so fun. My classes were three hours at night. Her daughter would bring her and drop her off and she continued on because my class stopped. She still found other classes to take and she hadn’t painted in 40 years. Yeah, she’s hooked again. And she was using a brush and she was bored with it so I said, “Here’s a palette knife let’s try this.” And she’s like a kid again. She’ll probably still be there til she’s a 109 because it kind of feeds your soul and inspires you and gives you a reason to get up.There’s a lot of other people they’re even in sculpture classes. There’s people, women in their eighties. So it’s for everyone. I’m not making that up….

Art Workshops

At the dude ranch she talked us into going there twice as guests. I went there to paint because I couldn’t ride, my back wouldn’t let me ride horses, but I love them. I never considered myself a plein air artist because I’m slow at landscape and that’s what you need. You need someone that can do a demo in an hour. Mine would take half a day. But I went back the next year as a guest and they talked me into coming the next year as an instructor. So we started that up and part of what I do is I teach a beginning class for the people that are there to ride that have no idea how to paint. So I go prepared with the drawing art and a canvas for as many as 20 people. And they’ll have 45 minutes before the morning ride and maybe 45 minutes before dinner so everything has to be fast with them and then in between is the advanced students. And it’s pretty fascinating and a lot of fun and what I’ve found when we go up to it’s called Breakfast Ride and we go up to 13,000 feet. You’re looking down, you don’t see any inhabitants’ houses. You just see the Colorado River and this little drizzle at the edge of your view and I go off to a mountain and just stare. Nature again….

But a couple years ago I got to meet one of my cousins because my parents are from Colorado and I had never been growing up. And my cousin who was 70 met me at the airport. And what’s fascinating in the small world is where I was at the edge of those mountains my aunt used to own 7,000 acres. I never met her. They had died and gave 5,000 acres to the YMCA for Snow Mountain Ranch… No wonder I loved it there from the beginning, I have so many roots there. And actually the town of Tiffany, Colorado was named for my grandfather. He was a mining engineer and he surveyed the town. You know, small world….

LISTEN Part III (18:02)

 

Painting Horses

My first year at the ranch I took that photo. I came home and had to paint it. There’s another horse there named Bella and she’s on my website. I have no pictures of her, she and I really connected for some reason. When I first met her she was dappled grey and black and now she’s almost all white. We got white hair together. But she’s one of those horses as well as her companion horse that are there for challenged children. They can ride, even adults who made need special care, but want to ride. These are gentle horses. I’ve learned a lot about horse personalities being there. I had no idea they’re like people….

White horse in stall.

“Bobby Sox” by Barbara Tiffany, oil on linen, 16 X 20

Art is about Education

Art is about education. And until, even abstract [art] a long time ago, I wasn’t a fan of it until I saw a documentary of Robert Motherwell. Oh my gosh, the story he told with the color and a drip or line was very telling and you can do that with anything. It’s all about sharing and learning, educating and doing…. Crealde – it’s pretty much year around. And because I’m on Friday even during summer camp I can have my class which a lot of teachers can’t. There’s no time. But I teach all the time and then my two workshops and that will never stop. And I’m sculpting. I’ve been in David Cumbie’s sculpture class for two years now and I’ve exhibited. And there’s a competition coming up I’ll enter in and I’m still painting. I do more demonstration paintings for my classes. and for public demonstrations at Crealde then the more complicated pieces because of time. Then when I do paint something now I just make sure it’s exactly what I want and not just because I want to paint. I spend more time thinking about it and I still work hard at painting something that might be simple. It’s so well observed because of color and light. And when somebody asks about it I can educate them on light.

It’s not man-made the idea of complementary colors.

This particular piece that I just finished is called the white cup, but there’s no white in the painting because it’s reflecting everything….I used to have a traffic light in my studio at Maitland and my brother’s an electrician. He made each color come on separately. So kids would come in for tours and go what’s with the traffic light? They were more interested in that then anything else. I’d turn on the green and at first I’d say, “Hold up your arms” because the walls are white. And I’d say before I turn it on I want you to look at the walls because the shadows will be red. So I’d turn on the green and they’s be like what? Why? I said, “It’s a complementary color. Light does that. So I’d do the middle color and it was violet and then the top color the shadows were green. And it just. It was so dramatic that you’ll leave there knowing that it’s not man made, the idea of complementary colors. 

Find a way to create art because it’s just so satisfying… 

But my sculptures are storytelling, too. I’ve translated that and my pieces that will be coming up will be combining painting visually and the clay together in one piece. But I never know what’s down the road for anything, of course. I just honor all of it. And enjoy seeing other people’s works. I go to McRae Street and other shows. And even curating and installing shows I’m learning so much about other people’s process. And it’s all good. There’s not any one way that’s more important or better than the other. And if the artist’s intent is truly from their heart then it’s a masterpiece. No matter if it’s a rough technique or a classical technique or anything. It’s all important and it’s important for people to do this if they want to. Find a way to create art because it’s just so satisfying….  

Gentle Guidance for Artists    

It’s got to be a happy experience. It just has to. And I am kind. And at Crealde I don’t have beginning students, but I have various levels of intermediate to advanced in my classes. And based on spending time with them and knowing how far they want to go I can give them ten things to work on, to critique, or just guide them gently this way. Some are serious, some are not. I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I want them to come back and enjoy their experience, but when I was no longer Maury’s student, but when I would still take work for critique which I knew I had to stop at some point. He would point to one thing and say that, and, of course, he was right and I hadn’t seen it. And I find my students saying that, that is what I do to them. Find that one thing. Oh, you’re right. And I usually tell them please trust me and it doesn’t mean I won’t steer you wrong. But on mixing the color I’ll give them the formula for that. They learn from each other, too, because everybody’s doing something different. And they walk around to see what I’m saying about this and they’ll learn about that. So it’s a good experience and it should be a good experience….

There’s a lot of artists that I go back with friendship into the 70’s when I started doing art shows. They’re still around and we talk about old things. And they can’t believe the age of my daughter that I’m a grandmother. Our kids grew up together. But we’re still at it… I have so much to do here. I’m not looking for anything else, but I certainly enjoy going to the ranch, and Vero and Indiana. We go there about once a year, and I’d love to paint there, but there’s never time. But no, Central Florida’s my home. My daughter’s here, my grandkids are here, my granddaughter lives with us, so yeah, I’m here…. We go for nature walks right behind here. My daughter when they’re here working on the Air Stream we’ll go to the park for a walk. That’s always a part of it. It’s easy to do. There’s trees and water and nature all around. I don’t need to be anywhere else.

Interview: Barbara Tiffany

Interviewer: Jane Tracy

Date: March 4, 2015

Place: Artist’s Central Florida residence.

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ATTACHMENTS

"Mood Indigo"

"Mood Indigo" a painting by award winning Florida artist Maury Hurt. Courtesy Barbara Tiffany.

"Blue Bottle With Mirrors"

"Blue Bottle With Mirrors" by Barbara Tiffany, oil on linen. Courtesy Barbara Tiffany.

"Bobby Sox"

"Bobby Sox" by Barbara Tiffany, oil on linen. Courtesy Barbara Tiffany.

"In Progress"

"In Progress" by Barbara Tiffany, oil on linen Courtesy Barbara Tiffany.

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