At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act . . . what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.”           Harold Rosenberg

My paintings evolve through the process of putting layers of paint on the canvas to build up complex areas of color.  I use brushstrokes to create movement and to soften edges between shapes, as in the imperfect edges in nature.  Colors and shapes are pushed against each other so that they create a satisfying tension, a fullness of energy, on the surface of the canvas.  As a composition starts to unfold, the goal is to stay focused on what is happening on the canvas at the moment, to keep the painting “alive”. Sometimes I have to be willing to completely destroy something if it is not working; but often that will lead me in a new and unexpected direction.  The subject matter is the event happening on the surface of the canvas.

Deborah Lloyd Kaufman was an art educator in the Keene Public Schools for over 24 years as well as an adjunct faculty member at Keene State College and Antioch-New England for ten years. She has exhibited and sold throughout the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire.  Her work, which is in private collections across New England , New York and California, has included linocuts, ceramic tiles, canvas floorcloths and acrylic paintings. Deborah’s Studio is located in Spofford, New Hampshire, where her current focus is primarily acrylic paint on canvas.