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Joellyn Toler Duesberry[1] (June 30, 1944 – August 5, 2016)[2] was a landscape artist who worked in oils.
She said that her paintings echo the work of John Marin and Milton Avery.[3] Of her art, Duesberry said, "I am not interested in a realist painting, I am not interested in an abstract painting. I am interested in the tension."[4]
Joellyn Toler Duesberry was born on June 30, 1944, in Richmond, Virginia.[5] Growing up in rural Virginia instilled in her a love for the land. She said, "All my life I think I've unconsciously tried to re-create the place where bliss or terror first came to me. Both emotions seemed so strong that I had to locate them outside of myself, in the land. This goes back to a childhood habit--of living in rural Virginia and seeking woods and creeks and lakes for solitary refuge; places where I could sketch and paint."[1] She decided to start painting at age ten after being given a pair of red tennis shoes and walking on the beach, inspired by the colorful juxtaposition of sand, shadow, and shoe.[6] Soon thereafter she decided that "Women artists existed and she needed to be among them."[7]
She received a BA with Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, in art history and painting, from Smith College in 1966.[8] In that year she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. While at Smith, she "honed her skills by making countless copies of masterworks."[9] She took her master's degree at New York University Institute of Fine Arts.[8] Despite her degrees, she is considered to be a self-taught artist.[9]
Joellyn Duesberry was a plein air painter, who began "her canvases outdoors on an easel and finish[ed] them in the studio, frequently making monotypes in between."[9]
She moved to Denver in 1985, and embraced the Colorado landscape in her art.[5] In that year she received an Individual Painting Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts[5] to work with Richard Diebenkorn.[2]
In 1997, Duesberry won the Benjamin Altman Landscape Prize from the National Academy of Design.[8] While she had a World Views residency with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) from 1998-1999, Duesberry painted city studies in studio space in some vacant offices of the World Trade Center's North Tower.[8] She says that, because of her connection to the World Trade Center, the tone of her painting saddened after 9/11.[8]
In 2005, a PBS documentary was made of Joellyn Duesberry's life, work, and creative process titled Joellyn Duesberry: Dialogue with the Artist.[3]
Her works are held by institutions such as Metropolitan Museum of Art[10] and Smith College Museum of Art.[11]
- 1998: A Covenant of Seasons: Monotypes by Joellyn T. Duesberry, Poetry by Pattiann Rogers, ISBN 1555951562
- 2011: Elevated Perspective: The Paintings of Joellyn Duesberry, ISBN 978-0983368502
In 1984, Duesberry met Dr. Ira Kowal, a Denver cardiologist, while at a dinner party in Vail. They married in 1986 and lived in Greenwood Village, Colorado.[12]
Duesberry died from pancreatic cancer, aged 72, on August 5, 2016. She was survived by her husband; a sister, Pat Washko; stepdaughters Rebekah Kowal and Jessica Kowal, and extended family.
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