Cushing Ct, South Portland

Cushing Ct, South Portland
2025 
Oil on linen and found wood
16" x 8" x 4

Tessa Greene O’Brien is an artist & curator based in South Portland, Maine. She received a BS in Fine Art from Skidmore College and an MFA from Maine College of Art and Design. O'Brien has shown throughout the United States, including recent exhibitions at Candice Madey Gallery, New York; La Loma Projects, Los Angeles; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Platform Project Space, Brooklyn; Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles; Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland; Buoy Gallery, Kittery; Sears Peyton Gallery, New York; Studio E Gallery, Seattle; and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. She was a 2022-2023 Residential Fellow at The Lunder Institute for American Art at Colby College; other residencies include Surf Point, Tides Institute, Monson Arts, Haystack, Hewnoaks, Vermont Studio Center, Joseph A Fiore Art Center, and Stephen Pace House. Grants and awards include the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, The Ellis Beauregard Foundation, the Maine Arts Commission, the Joseph. A. Fiore Painting Prize, St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award, and the Kindling Fund at SPACE Gallery. 

O’Brien has curated group and solo exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Alice Gauvin Gallery, TEMPOArts, and numerous shows at Able Baker Contemporary, where she was previously a director.

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1. GUERRA Paint pigments amazing colors and allows you to make your own acrylic paints, getting exact viscosity and quantity of color.
2. Guerra binders What you mix the pigments with the make paint- I love their silica flat, it makes a velvety matte finish, no shine!
3. Jacquard Procion MX Fabic Dyes I use these to dye my canvases before painting- must be used with Soda Ash- this multi color starter pack includes a package of soda ash
4. Gamblin PVA Size Used to seal dyed fabric before painting, the modern equivalent of rabbit skin glue
5. Canvas plyers- used to get the canvas stretched tightly!
6. Marble dust I add this to oil paints to build body and add texture
7. Phthalo Turquoise: This color is bonkers- I use sparingly but couldn't live without it
8. Courbet Green- the best green/black, in my opinion!
9. Quinacridone Violet oil paint also couldn't live without this color 
10. Half Box French easel- my go-to for plein air painting- light weight and easy to carry into the field!