Ted Tihansky is an artist. Ted is also a mess. He has
paint everywhere but on the canvas. On his forehead, a war-paint-like
slash of blue; in his hair, chartreuse; on his shirt chrome
yellow. What is it about Ted that invites disaster? Once when
he was painting be the shore, a little girl came over to watch,
and in the wink of an eye the painting tipped over on her,
and she became a living canvas.
Watching Ted paint is a spectator sport, judging from the
crowd of tourists gathered in the road behind him. It is a
dance. He steps back from the easel, then forward, brush in
hand, back and forth, and soon the glorious display of larkspurs,
nasturtiums, and poppies growing in the garden belonging to
Kathie Iannicelli, the island's greenest thumb, lifts from
the canvas and blooms with such exuberance as to dazzle the
eyes. 'Painting is my life,' says Ted, who is tall, rangy,
and endearingly earnest. 'It took me 30 years to learn that.'
-National Geographic, July 2001, p.92
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Ted has been working and
living on Monhegan Island, Maine for the last seven years. He
came to the island with a wealth of experience in paining and
owning a gallery in Newport, RI. Tihansky received formal training
at the Art student's League, NYC, Paier College of Arts and
Lyme Academy of fine Art, CT. He has also studied with landscape
painter Don Stone, portraitist Aaron Shikler, as well as Ronald
Sherr and Harvey Dinnersteind~all internationally know artists.
He has received numerous awards and has been featured in World
Traveler, National Geographic and Cottage living magazines .His
portraits are in many collections, including Yale University
and the Naval War College.
Ted is moving toward paintings that break with pure representation,
moving into the spiritual connection to the place and time we
find in the best of Monhegan. It is his loose and inspired brushwork
that speaks to the viewer of his soul and the soul of such a
place as this island.
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