In my figurative paintings I create stories about human relationships that are partly from experience, partly from imagination. The characters in these stories are family members and friends. My symbolic language is drawn from objects, creatures and places of personal significance, and from archetypes in dreams, mythology, alchemy, and fairy tales. In the process of creating these paintings I dig down beyond the initial idea, uncovering deeper levels of meaning until I am within reach of its essence.  

My perspective the landscape my perspective ranges from ground-level views that are specific, and intimate, to panoramic aerial views that show the overall picture, and the spatial and abstract relationships between land and water. Each change in perspective requires a change in scale that in turn invites a new level of understanding. Places that feel special and unique when seen close up become dwarfed by the immense geological formations when viewed from the air.  

Connecting and Creating in Isolation

Portrait Society Of America

by Alexandra Tyng

Within a few weeks in March, 2020, my life, your lives, and our world changed dramatically. Many people lost their lives. Many of those who were fortunate enough to continue living ironically lost their means of “making a living.” As a painter of multi-figure paintings and commissioned portraits, I suddenly found myself isolated from other people. Initially, I wondered if I would lose my ability to help support my family by making and selling my artwork, but I gradually discovered new ways of connecting with people and thereby continuing to create the kind of paintings that give me joy.

As COVID first appeared in the U.S., I was composing a multi-figure painting entitled The Architecture of Connection. A friend of mine had had a vivid dream that he thought would translate well into a painting. I was intrigued by the idea and I set to work making preliminary sketches of the composition. In the dream, a reunion of high school friends is happening at the incongruous juncture of two atriums of two separate buildings—the hospital and the Philadelphia Art Museum. The dreamer, dressed in a hospital gown, is crawling on hands and knees towards three beautiful women, former classmates...

The Thoughtful Art of Alexandra Tyng

Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies Center

by Stephen May

Words that come to mind when thinking about the art of Alexandra Tyng: intelligence, knowledge and talent; or perhaps independence, perception and determination. Tyng, 58, stands out among contemporary representational painters for her comprehensive grasp of art history, and for the inquiring mind that infuses her compositions. A mature artist at the top of her game, she knows what she wants - and how to achieve it in paint. Tyng reached her current confident, accomplished style by unconventional means, shunning art school and bucking the tide of Abstract Expressionism is the 1970s by becoming a realist painter. She learned traditional oil painting methods by examining the works of old masters, reading about techniques, styles and materials used by other artists, and observing artists at work. Today she is known for her figurative paintings and landscapes of Maine and elsewhere, and portraits painted in her studio outside Philadelphia. Preeminent Maine art writer Carl Little has observed: "Tyng is equally comfortable - and accomplished - in landscape and portraiture, which makes her something of a rarity among contemporary artists. She even dares to combine the two, setting figures in her views, inviting us to consider how person and place fit together (and they do, splendidly)."