ARTIST PROFILE
Artist Nancy Furino
Is Forever Beginning Again
Profile by Moira C. Silva
Maybe it’s too soon for Nancy Furino to have a retrospective exhibition at Dragonfly Gallery.
Word on the street is, she’s only getting better and better.
“Her potential for greatness expands exponentially because she is open to criticism and trying different things,” explains Don McKillop, owner of the Dragonfly Gallery Fine Arts Gallery in Oak Bluffs.
Despite the breadth of her masterful work, which typically features bold contrasts, shapes, and colors and spans almost six decades, Nancy Furino modestly calls herself a student. She quotes the great Italian painter Titian, who said on his deathbed, “I don’t want to die now, because I am just beginning to learn to paint.”
Furino’s upcoming show coincides with the release of a retrospective book tentatively titled, Nancy Furino: I’ve Only Just Begun, which includes drawings and lithograph prints, as well as paintings, both abstract expressionistic and impressionistic – done in watercolors, acrylics and oil. A newly released archival reproduction on canvas of Furino’s 2009 painting “Illumination Night” will also be available for purchase at the show.
Visitors at the exhibition – which will run from October 1-10 – will see hints of Henry Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, as they consider how Furino's style has changed with the times.
Some post World War II families owned Furino paintings before their first television set. Furino has continued painting through the fast-paced digital age where being an artist is synonymous with being a Mac computer wizard. Now is a fine time to contemplate how the fleeting qualities of patience and originality can give rise to greatness.
Her exhibition provides a unique chance to see Furino’s early works, such as pairs of jazz-inspired lithographs and musical abstracts. Furino’s artistic growth is especially evident in juxtaposed renderings of the same subject, some as simple as hedges in Edgartown, done in different decades.
The collective brilliance of her paintings, so alive with movement and drama, will grab viewers with both hands. Some of her early work is capable of transporting them to the peaceful Italian countryside, while a more recent abstract conveys the shock of last summer’s fire at the Menemsha Coast Guard Boathouse. Some works are haunted with the grief of an Italian funeral, and others evoke the bittersweet feeling of an early autumn sunset at Squibnocket Beach.
But, no matter the subject, style or year, Island artist-colleague Hermine Hull notes, “Furino always paints more than what’s there.”
Just as royalty is born royal, Furino was born an artist.
Early on, Nancy Valentine Burdoin’s parents and teachers recognized her talent. She was enrolled in Saturday classes at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. Her Elementary School Art Teacher submitted the young Furino’s drawings to The Boston Globe's Scholastic Art and Writing Award Program, which awarded her three Gold Keys. During summers, her highly successful artist grandmother Juliette Burdoin invited her to paint along side her in Gloucester, which gave Furino the opportunity to study with the well-known landscape painter Emile Gruppe. While studying with Gruppe, Furino developed a life-long aptitude for distilling the essential elements of a creative work.
Furino attended college at the MFA School, where she majored in sculpture, graphic design, and painting. She quickly gained the notice of several MFA “superstar” instructors, including Ture Bengtz and Karl Zirbe, leading to her being awarded the prestigious Boit prize for drawing.
After graduating with high honors in 1951, Furino earned a traveling fellowship from the MFA Graphics Design Department based upon her drawings. During her 1951 – 1952 MFA travel fellowship to Italy – with a winter spent in Sicily – Furino visited temples, ancient ruins, museums, and many of the world’s natural wonders. Attending live opera was a highpoint. Following a Roman Opera House performance of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra,” Furino and a friend flirted with members of the elite corps of presidential honor guards. One in particular, Domenic “Mimmo” Furino, caught her eye. With “Mimmo” still on her mind, she continued traveling, but eventually returned to married her Italian sweetheart.
Under Mimmo’s family’s roof, the young couple taught each other English and Italian. They later traveled together to England, Wales, and France. During their travels Furino took numerous slides, which she later used as the basis for her paintings.
Back in the States, and living in rural Sherborn, Massachusetts, Mimmo worked as stone mason, while the young couple raised their daughter, Liz and son, Tommy. Although having young children made it challenging to continue painting, Furino managed to make time for her passion, with her husband’s unfailing support. In 1981, their son, Tommy successfully persuaded his parents to move to the Vineyard by reasoning, “Dad can fish; Mom, you can paint.”
Furino has deep Vineyard roots from her mother’s side of the family, the Valentines. The Captain Valentine-Pease House on South Water Street in Edgartown was the home of the ship captain with whom Moby Dick author Herman Melville reportedly went to sea.
Furino was immediately at home as an Island artist. “The ambiance here is wonderful, more relaxing. You can go to store with paint on your clothes . . .and each town is so different that you have totally new challenges when you go to a new town to work. The light is great and subjects are everywhere,” she says.
Hermine Merel Smith Fine Art was the first Island gallery to represent Furino. She recalls, “Nancy walked into my gallery, and we became instant friends. I love good paintings and I was interested in representing her and her unique art.”
From 2005 to 2010 Carol Craven represented Nancy Furino at her West Tisbury gallery. Carol expresses a deep respect for Furino’s work, sharing, “I admire her enormously . . . It’s clear in her paintings that she has seen a lot of art, studied art history and traveled.”
Beyond being held in high esteem within the local arts community, Furino has been recognized for her accomplishments by winning national awards and nominations. Some notable lifetime achievements include being invited in 2000 to join the Oil Painting Division of Audubon Artists (whose members included such “greats” as Andrew Wyeth, Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, and Guy Wiggins) and being listed in the 2005 – 2006 Who’s Who in American Artists. The oldest art association in America –the Copley Society of Boston – has not only awarded her several prizes – including the Originality Award in 1981 – but also welcomed her as a Master artist.
“Her work has changed a lot,” observes Hermine Hull. “It’s gotten so powerful – her vision, especially . . . The shapes she’s making are all exaggerated and stylized. It reminds me of Fauves and the German expressionists who use exaggerated shapes with strong colors as emotions, portraying a very visceral scene," Hermine says.
Artist-colleague Liz Taft now notices that with Furino’s life and painting, “she has become more internal, following her own path . . . Age has given her the clarity of vision. That is a real gift.”
According to Furino, “Now my style varies depending on what I’m painting. If something has a lot of abstract qualities, then I do an abstract. If it’s a charming scene, I’m more realistic. I’m trying to do the best painting I can . . . learning from my mistakes.”
Although Furino once enjoyed being a plein air, or “out in the air” painter, the work has become too physically exhausting. She occasionally paints with other artists, but is most often inside her cozy home studio, “painting from her head” or from photographs. Perspective is everything; her perspective alone is the driving force. Furino enjoys meeting regularly with an acclaimed group of local female artists to exchange critical feedback while sharing fine food and an intrinsic appreciation of all art forms.
At 82 years of age, she thinks about “leaving a legacy.” She considers her family her most important work and is especially delighted that her son, Tommy and grandson, Michael, both embody the family’s aesthetic talents as fine stone masons. Meanwhile, Furino paintings are continuing to find their way into fine public and private collections. Her new book and her retrospective show at the Dragonfly will of course further build her legacy. One can only wonder what Nancy Furino, with her formidable approach to life and art, will envision next. She’s only just begun.
Word on the street is, she’s only getting better and better.
“Her potential for greatness expands exponentially because she is open to criticism and trying different things,” explains Don McKillop, owner of the Dragonfly Gallery Fine Arts Gallery in Oak Bluffs.
Despite the breadth of her masterful work, which typically features bold contrasts, shapes, and colors and spans almost six decades, Nancy Furino modestly calls herself a student. She quotes the great Italian painter Titian, who said on his deathbed, “I don’t want to die now, because I am just beginning to learn to paint.”
Furino’s upcoming show coincides with the release of a retrospective book tentatively titled, Nancy Furino: I’ve Only Just Begun, which includes drawings and lithograph prints, as well as paintings, both abstract expressionistic and impressionistic – done in watercolors, acrylics and oil. A newly released archival reproduction on canvas of Furino’s 2009 painting “Illumination Night” will also be available for purchase at the show.
Visitors at the exhibition – which will run from October 1-10 – will see hints of Henry Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, as they consider how Furino's style has changed with the times.
Some post World War II families owned Furino paintings before their first television set. Furino has continued painting through the fast-paced digital age where being an artist is synonymous with being a Mac computer wizard. Now is a fine time to contemplate how the fleeting qualities of patience and originality can give rise to greatness.
Her exhibition provides a unique chance to see Furino’s early works, such as pairs of jazz-inspired lithographs and musical abstracts. Furino’s artistic growth is especially evident in juxtaposed renderings of the same subject, some as simple as hedges in Edgartown, done in different decades.
The collective brilliance of her paintings, so alive with movement and drama, will grab viewers with both hands. Some of her early work is capable of transporting them to the peaceful Italian countryside, while a more recent abstract conveys the shock of last summer’s fire at the Menemsha Coast Guard Boathouse. Some works are haunted with the grief of an Italian funeral, and others evoke the bittersweet feeling of an early autumn sunset at Squibnocket Beach.
But, no matter the subject, style or year, Island artist-colleague Hermine Hull notes, “Furino always paints more than what’s there.”
Just as royalty is born royal, Furino was born an artist.
Early on, Nancy Valentine Burdoin’s parents and teachers recognized her talent. She was enrolled in Saturday classes at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. Her Elementary School Art Teacher submitted the young Furino’s drawings to The Boston Globe's Scholastic Art and Writing Award Program, which awarded her three Gold Keys. During summers, her highly successful artist grandmother Juliette Burdoin invited her to paint along side her in Gloucester, which gave Furino the opportunity to study with the well-known landscape painter Emile Gruppe. While studying with Gruppe, Furino developed a life-long aptitude for distilling the essential elements of a creative work.
Furino attended college at the MFA School, where she majored in sculpture, graphic design, and painting. She quickly gained the notice of several MFA “superstar” instructors, including Ture Bengtz and Karl Zirbe, leading to her being awarded the prestigious Boit prize for drawing.
After graduating with high honors in 1951, Furino earned a traveling fellowship from the MFA Graphics Design Department based upon her drawings. During her 1951 – 1952 MFA travel fellowship to Italy – with a winter spent in Sicily – Furino visited temples, ancient ruins, museums, and many of the world’s natural wonders. Attending live opera was a highpoint. Following a Roman Opera House performance of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra,” Furino and a friend flirted with members of the elite corps of presidential honor guards. One in particular, Domenic “Mimmo” Furino, caught her eye. With “Mimmo” still on her mind, she continued traveling, but eventually returned to married her Italian sweetheart.
Under Mimmo’s family’s roof, the young couple taught each other English and Italian. They later traveled together to England, Wales, and France. During their travels Furino took numerous slides, which she later used as the basis for her paintings.
Back in the States, and living in rural Sherborn, Massachusetts, Mimmo worked as stone mason, while the young couple raised their daughter, Liz and son, Tommy. Although having young children made it challenging to continue painting, Furino managed to make time for her passion, with her husband’s unfailing support. In 1981, their son, Tommy successfully persuaded his parents to move to the Vineyard by reasoning, “Dad can fish; Mom, you can paint.”
Furino has deep Vineyard roots from her mother’s side of the family, the Valentines. The Captain Valentine-Pease House on South Water Street in Edgartown was the home of the ship captain with whom Moby Dick author Herman Melville reportedly went to sea.
Furino was immediately at home as an Island artist. “The ambiance here is wonderful, more relaxing. You can go to store with paint on your clothes . . .and each town is so different that you have totally new challenges when you go to a new town to work. The light is great and subjects are everywhere,” she says.
Hermine Merel Smith Fine Art was the first Island gallery to represent Furino. She recalls, “Nancy walked into my gallery, and we became instant friends. I love good paintings and I was interested in representing her and her unique art.”
From 2005 to 2010 Carol Craven represented Nancy Furino at her West Tisbury gallery. Carol expresses a deep respect for Furino’s work, sharing, “I admire her enormously . . . It’s clear in her paintings that she has seen a lot of art, studied art history and traveled.”
Beyond being held in high esteem within the local arts community, Furino has been recognized for her accomplishments by winning national awards and nominations. Some notable lifetime achievements include being invited in 2000 to join the Oil Painting Division of Audubon Artists (whose members included such “greats” as Andrew Wyeth, Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, and Guy Wiggins) and being listed in the 2005 – 2006 Who’s Who in American Artists. The oldest art association in America –the Copley Society of Boston – has not only awarded her several prizes – including the Originality Award in 1981 – but also welcomed her as a Master artist.
“Her work has changed a lot,” observes Hermine Hull. “It’s gotten so powerful – her vision, especially . . . The shapes she’s making are all exaggerated and stylized. It reminds me of Fauves and the German expressionists who use exaggerated shapes with strong colors as emotions, portraying a very visceral scene," Hermine says.
Artist-colleague Liz Taft now notices that with Furino’s life and painting, “she has become more internal, following her own path . . . Age has given her the clarity of vision. That is a real gift.”
According to Furino, “Now my style varies depending on what I’m painting. If something has a lot of abstract qualities, then I do an abstract. If it’s a charming scene, I’m more realistic. I’m trying to do the best painting I can . . . learning from my mistakes.”
Although Furino once enjoyed being a plein air, or “out in the air” painter, the work has become too physically exhausting. She occasionally paints with other artists, but is most often inside her cozy home studio, “painting from her head” or from photographs. Perspective is everything; her perspective alone is the driving force. Furino enjoys meeting regularly with an acclaimed group of local female artists to exchange critical feedback while sharing fine food and an intrinsic appreciation of all art forms.
At 82 years of age, she thinks about “leaving a legacy.” She considers her family her most important work and is especially delighted that her son, Tommy and grandson, Michael, both embody the family’s aesthetic talents as fine stone masons. Meanwhile, Furino paintings are continuing to find their way into fine public and private collections. Her new book and her retrospective show at the Dragonfly will of course further build her legacy. One can only wonder what Nancy Furino, with her formidable approach to life and art, will envision next. She’s only just begun.