Deborah Kommalan
United States
Deborah was born in Baltimore. She graduated from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, in 1970, with a diploma in Graphic Design. She studied basic painting as part of the freshman foundation courses, but never pursued it.
After a forty-year hiatus she enrolled at Anne Arundel Community College where she studied painting for six years, including three years with Leonard Koscianski and one year with Lillian Bayley Hoover. She continues her study with Anthony Waichulis at Ani Art Academy in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
She has studied some of the Great Masters by copying paintings in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D. C. She painted in a variety of styles while she searched for her own direction. Her preferred medium is oil.
She has received first place awards in shows at the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis, MD, as well as the Caruso award (Best in Show for Still Life). She has shown also at BWI Airport, University of Maryland Medical Center, Anne Arundel Medical Center, and Quiet Waters Park and the corporate offices of What’s Up? Magazine, among other venues. In 2013 and again in 2014, she took first place at the UMMC show, which is associated with the National Arts Program. As online competitions become more prevalent, she shows often at GalleryRing.com, where she has won and placed in competitions.
She prefers painting photo-realist still lifes with a strong leaning to tenebrism, and still lifes which imply movement, which she calls "kinetic" still lifes. She also painted a series of parking signs, which is very different subject matter than still life. More recently she has worked on a series which include hand grenades, which has proven to be very popular.
In these still lifes she invites you to take an intimate look at everyday objects.
She is represented by McBride Gallery in Annapolis, Maryland; she is a member of the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis, Maryland and shows occasionally at Crystal Moll Gallery in Federal Hill, Baltimore, Maryland. Now represented by Tim Faulkner Gallery, Louisville, KY.
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.