Press • Savannah Morning News Article by Allison Hersh

By Allison Hersh
By any measure, artist Tiffani Taylor is one of the Savannah College of Art and Design's most accomplished graduates.
Her richly-layered, nature-inspired paintings have been included in private art collections of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley and fashion designer Diane vonFurstenberg . Her signature red poppy watercolors have been featured on Henri Bendel cashmere sweaters, her floral drawer pulls have been showcased at Hallmark stores, and her hand-painted pottery is available at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.
In "Expressionistic Marsh Landscapes," a new exhibit at Irene Sullivan Gallery on Tybee Island, Taylor debuts her latest experiments with paint and collage. A series of unconventional marsh paintings, splashed with dripping veils of gold paint, hang alongside her popular flower market compositions and collectible poppy flower paintings.
"I've painted marshes in the past, but never on this scale," she said."These paintings offer a multi-dimensional emotional response to nature. I try to describe how it feels to stand next to the marsh."
Taylor loves gazing at Moon River at twilight and navigating the Little Ogeechee River with her husband, Joel LeVine, aboard their one-engine skiff. She expands her palette in her latest paintings, working with soft pastels and juxtaposing colors from the opposite end of the color wheel.
"I'm working with a lot of complementary colors," she explained. "I feel like I'm having a love affair with color."
Taylor's marshscapes feature stronger brushwork and heavier layers of pigment than in her previous work. "Expressionistic Marsh Landscapes"demonstrates her growing maturity as an artist and showcases herability to infuse landscapes with deep emotion.
At home in Savannah
At her home studio in Savannah, she typically prepares her canvases outdoors by tossing coffee or tea at them, using the caffeinated stains as a foundation for her mixed-media paintings. By adding layers of collage, acrylic paint and liquid gold leaf, she creates layered compositions that exude emotion and energy.

"I paint how I feel," she said. "My latest work involves themes of peace, grace and harmony."

In "Expressionistic Marsh: Joy, Full-Circle," she interweaves hand-written poetry and sheet music into a majestic marshscape, splattering the surface with bursts of golden paint. She incorporates traditional gold leaf, gold ink and powdered gold into various layers of her work, offering a tribute to twilight, a time she describes as "the magic hour when everything glows."

Taylor captures the sensual power of nature in "Savannah Marsh Harmony: A Prayer," with its thick veil of gold pigment overlaid atop rich amber, aquamarine and amethyst hues. In these muscular, gritty marshscapes, she strategically combines elements of Impressionism and Expressionism, pushing raw, visceral emotion to the forefront.

Unlike the marshscapes that serve as love letters to coastal Georgia, Taylor's poppy paintings, with their bright petals and bewitching forms, serve as a nostalgic tribute to the wildflowers of her native Utah. Other paintings have been inspired by the artist's visits to France and Italy, offering kinetic representations of flowers painted atop collaged scraps of sheet music, prayer cards, vintage postcards, maps and stream-of-consciousness poetry in delicate cursive script.

Irene Sullivan, the owner of Irene Sullivan Gallery, reports that Taylor is one of the venue's most popular artists, explaining that visitors love to collect paintings by this rising artist.

"Her new work is so glorious," she said. "Tiffani has a wonderful gift for painting with such emotional energy, but her paintings are so peaceful. I can look at her paintings 200 times and see something different every time."