Nature -- magical, vibrant, transitory and elusive in its complexity, chaos and order. It is more than just textures, patterns, shapes and colors. It mystifies and inspires me. Sometimes I work abstractly purely with color to create light and form; sometimes more figurative. I seek to render and animate the individual elements in a composition to give expression and life to the whole. Currently my interest is in developing a visual language that conveys the living and dynamic qualities I feel when immersed in nature.
Huntington Garden, CA
The role color plays in my art making and its alchemy is of particular interest to me. It started when I taught color theory at the University of Cincinnati in 1975. I used Josef Albers's Interaction of Color as the basis for my lectures and projects. In 1978 I studied color theory at Yale with graphic designer, artist, and colorist Armin Hofmann. Instead of cut paper --Albers's medium --Armin, professor at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel School of Art, used gouache for probing the properties of color. I found that by using paint to investigate color interaction and formulating a color's mix, I better understood why and how different colors affected each other.
In the 1980s and 90s I worked as a professional graphics and color consultant on urban design, architecture, and publications projects. My clients included the Hood Museum of Art, Centerbrook Architects, the Boston Museum of Science, the New Haven Coliseum, the Connecticut Society of Architects, the Hartford Seminary, the Yale School of Architecture, the University of Hartford, and the Florence Griswold Museum.
I maintain studios in Connecticut and California. The landscape and light of these two places, so different from one another, influence much of my artwork. I also am influenced by childhood years in rural Ohio with its expansive, open farmland and big skies that change in color throughout varied stages of cultivation and the influence of seasonal light.
Connecticut landscape
Education:
MFA Yale University, 1980
Yale Summer Program Brissago, CH, 1978
Rhode Island School of Design, 1977
BS Design, University of Cincinnati, 1975
Maine Media Workshop, film, 2014
Teaching:
Foundation Design and Color Theory,
University of Cincinnati, 1975-76
Foundation Design, Graphic Design,
Color Theory, Hartford Art School,
University of Hartford, 1983-86
Publications:
City Print Series,
New York Graphic Society, 1983
Awards:
Connecticut Art Directors Club, 1981, 1986
Association of American Museums, 1986
Connecticut Society of Architects and
American Institute of Architects, 1988
New England Museum Association, 1996
Commissions:
University of St Joseph, West Hartford, CT '19
Acquisitions:
Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT '20
Exhibitions, Group:
New Britain Museum of American Art, CT '20
Film:
https://vimeo.com/brendahuffmanfloyd
Email:
floyd.brenda@gmail.com
Getty Museum Garden, CA