Deborah Tilby, Low Cloud, oil, 24 x 36.
In Deborah Tilby’s award-winning cloudscape entitled LOW CLOUD, “the sky, of course, takes up most of the composition,” she explains, “but the focus is really the cool, soft colors in the hills as they gradually disappear into the low clouds.” The painting’s size and format, in combination with the artist’s expressive brushwork, dramatically convey the power and movement of the clouds, striking a perfect balance with the landscape below.
Tilby, who lives and works in Victoria, British Columbia, moved there after spending her first 19 years in Edmonton, Alberta. A mid-teen’s obsession with horses “launched my love of drawing, first in pencil and then using a wooden pen with nibs and a bottle of ink,” she says. Tilby moved on “to drawing anything in front of me—the vacuum, shoes, even my own hands and feet.”
Self-taught, she found inspiration in such sources as Andrew Wyeth’s watercolors when she worked in that medium and legendary impressionistic realist Richard Schmid’s book Alla Prima when she ventured into oils. Professional recognition came from being exhibited in the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours during the 14 years she lived in England, as well as master status in the Oil Painters of America.
Whatever her subject, Tilby says she is “attracted mostly by some quality in the light and color, usually subdued neutrals and earth colors, along with interesting textures and moving water, and reflections in water or on wet pavements and sand.” She adds, “I never run out of enthusiasm or inspiration. I always have ideas percolating in the back of my mind.”
Find Tilby’s work at Peninsula Gallery, Sidney, BC, Canada; Gallery 8, Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada; and www.deborahtilby.com.
This story appeared in the December 2022/January 2023 issue of Southwest Art magazine.