Robin Tedesco is an artist and educator working in Philadelphia. She holds fine arts degrees from Moore College of Art (BFA), the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the University of Delaware (MFA). The many layers of color in her abstract oil paintings on wood panels reflect her experiences living in Italy, New York, and Philadelphia.
Tedesco sees herself as an archeologist and detective. She loves to dig, uncover, restore, and resolve, to look for what the light (and dark) reveal and transform. Her wood panels serve as etching plates that she pushes color into and prints onto. They combine printmaking, drawing and painting that interlace to form an image that is cohesive, while also revealing the interior light and form that is present in the layers of pigment and texture. She finds her environment to be rich with material. But in these paintings, wherever she is, there is something to uncover and integrate. It is her commitment to convey the richness and depth of her experiences and observations in her work.
Her work has been exhibited and is in public and private collections internationally. She has taught drawing and painting at all levels for over 25 years.
Artist Statement
When painting, I work like an archeologist – excavating, scratching, uncovering, restoring. Forms and figuration appear and disappear as layers reveal and transform the hidden light.
My love of Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting blossomed when living in Rome and I was privileged to be surrounded by these revolutionary works. Their influence aligned with the way my paintings evolve. The oil and wood panels offer continual inspiration as they did for those artists in the 15th century. My recent study of gold leaf techniques provides another link to medieval artists. Printmaking and drawing through oil-transfer, collaged materials, old photos, bits of discarded works on paper, and rubbings materialize and are hidden and waiting to be discovered.
Wherever I am, my acute visual sensibility is ready to absorb the current image; the color of a bird, the decay in ancient architecture, the subtlety of a shadow. I am grateful that my work as an artist heals me in rough times and is always therapeutic, offering continual inspiration and challenge.