Realism in Art - Teresa Brutcher - RealismToday.com
Teresa Brutcher, “No Net,” 2012, oil on canvas, 90 x 100 cm

Meet this week’s top Realism Today Ambassador, figurative oil painter Teresa Brutcher.

In her figurative realism, Teresa Brutcher renders her figures from the inside out and the outside in, telling us their stories of folly and fear, joy, defiance, and submission.

Literary symbols are often employed; other times, she sets a stage where every element plays a role in conveying her tale. Strong vivid colors and harsh lights and shadows, bulging veins and muscles, beckon the viewer into a world of emotions shared by humankind, of fears and fantasies which unite us all.

She currently lives and works in Spain, a country she came to know as an exchange student while getting her BA degree at the University of California. Mesmerized by the old masters that populated the Prado Museum in Madrid and by the country itself, she returned there upon completing her BA degree. Brutcher currently lives and works in the north of Spain, showing her figurative-realist paintings in galleries and museums there as well as in Portugal, Germany, and the US. She is a member of Poets and Artists.

“No Net” (shown above) is part of the realism series “Tightrope.” It depicts “the protagonist´s struggle to maintain equilibrium as she moves along the high wire, aware of the looming menace below; she clearly perceives the danger. So it is in our lives that happiness is fragile and ephemeral. It can topple and shatter should we lose our footing on this “high wire” we tread called life. Some of us live in fear of taking that “wrong step,” whereas others barge ahead in their valor or ignorance.”

Additional Figurative Oil Paintings:

Teresa Brutcher, “Afraid of II,” 2010, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Teresa Brutcher, “Afraid of II,” 2010, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

“Afraid of II” is part of a series that addresses “the plight of women as victims of violence, exclusion, and rejection — women who are denigrated, ignored, imprisoned under their garments, imprisoned inside themselves. The protagonist of this piece is not the blissful bride that her garments might indicate. She is one of so many frightened, subjugated women. She cowers beneath the table, panic stricken, hoping to evade some ominous threat.”

Teresa Brutcher, “Prince Snow White,” 2017, oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm
Teresa Brutcher, “Prince Snow White,” 2017, oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm

“Prince Snow White” is a painting from Brutcher’s most recent series, “The Apple” which, she tells us, “exploits the forbidden fruit as a long-time literary symbol of lurking danger and seduction; the apple taunts and lures and threatens with its poisonous potential. But in this piece, it is not the meek and weak damsel, “Snow White,” who has fallen victim of the venom and must be rescued by the kiss of her prince. Instead, it is the prince who has succumbed, for we are all fragile beings, men and women alike.”

Learn More About the Art of Teresa Brutcher:
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