Released: Oct. 5, 1999

Sheldon Tapley featured in national arts magazine

DANVILLE, KY - Centre College artist and teacher Sheldon Tapley is featured in the cover story for the November edition of American Artist magazine, due for release mid-October. The magazine is read world-wide by artists, teachers, art dealers and art critics.

Tapley is a painter whose current works are pastel still-lifes that capture the eye by putting unusual combinations of objects in juxtaposition. One painting may have a turtle shell, a pair of scissors and the corner of a Matisse painting, while another combines playing cards, pastries, flowers and coins.

The article in American Artist includes praise from arts writer Bill Creevy for Tapley's mastery of pastel still-lifes and a detailed description of Tapley's methods and style. The magazine provides eight full-color reproductions of works by Tapley, including a piece entitled "Harlequin," which serves as the magazine's cover art.

Among Creevy's observations: "All of Tapley's work is marked by a unique poetic quality in which the past and the present simultaneously exist." He also notes that Tapley has the capacity to "dazzle the viewer with the beauty and virtuosity of his illusionistic technique."

Tapley is a nationally recognized artist and his paintings are held in museum, academic, corporate and private collections across the United States. He is represented by the Tatistcheff gallery in New York City and the Linda Schwartz Gallery in Cincinnati.

Tapley was an abstractionist working with bold colors and textures when he first joined the Centre faculty in 1983. Blessed with technical skill and a willingness to innovate, he subsequently turned to landscapes and created garden scenes and regional vistas that drew wide praise. He changed his focus yet again in the mid-1990s when he began creating the still-life pastels that are so intriguing and unexpected. These works were featured in a 1996 solo exhibition at the Linda Schwartz Gallery, located in Lexington at that time, winning excellent reviews.

Tapley regularly judges competitive exhibitions and teaches workshops and master classes. He has been a featured speaker at numerous art events.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Grinnell College (bachelor's degree), Tapley received a master of fine arts degree from the University of Nebraska.

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Communications Office
Centre College
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Danville, KY 40422

Coordinator of Public Information: Patsi Barnes Trollinger
Telephone 606-238-5719 · trllngrp@centre.edu