Surreal Deal {T.R. Rogriquez}
Evoking a Feeling
Words & Photos Christopher Ferguson, AIA
Under the oppressive heat of the Texas summer, artist T.R. Rodriquez is an early riser. At 5:00 am, she starts her day with a cup of coffee and crosses her lush backyard enclave into her painting studio, lovingly built by her husband, Jonny. She works on three or four oil paintings at a time, surrounded by furniture she built and hand painted, until it’s time for breakfast. Then, it’s on to stretching canvases or working with leather, outside temperatures permitting.
Active in Austin for decades, she has been a regular stop on the Austin Studio Tour, where she annually opens her doors to welcome visitors interested in buying prints or original works.
Her many mediums include fastidious and colorful leather upholstery, rigorous and abstract colored pencil drawings, wood sculpture, furniture embellished with natural motifs, and, most recently, large format oil paintings. She fills the canvas with dreamlike landscapes, both real and imagined, focusing on pastoral scenery from an earlier life in the Texas countryside.
With notable range and a palpable artistic curiosity, a throughline in her work is the use of vibrant colors and a technical approach. Her oil paintings are especially evocative, blurring the boundary between place and placelessness, familiar and foreign, and past and present. Spending time with them is soothing and hypnotic, and their large scale yields the feeling that one could almost fall into them.
While some feel muted, others bloom with tessellating foliage rendered in rich prismatic hues reminiscent of scenes from Alice in Wonderland. As a collection, they are surreal and impressionistic, and a little magnetic – similar to the artist herself.
T.R. recently celebrated an opening exhibition of her oil paintings at Main Gallery in Smithville, Texas, and her work continues to earn the attention of those captivated by her unique style, diligently cultivated through a life well lived.
“When I find a subject, it just evokes something in me, and I want to let the viewer step into that feeling. I want them to feel there’s something just over that hedge and need to step forward.”
– T.R. Rodriquez
Contact:
(512) 284-6133
trrstudio@gmail.com
@trrstudio
Action!
Eagle-eyed viewers can spot T.R.’s work in the background of The
Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl, which was filmed in Austin.
Plan a Visit: Catch T.R. on the Austin Studio Tour Nov. 4-13.
