The first thing you notice walking into Adelaide Murphy Tyrol’s studio is the patchwork of colors on the floor. At first, one wonders, “Is that supposed to be a rug?” The colors, all in wide, short strokes, feel random. But in fact, they are remnants of a career as a backdrop painter for large movie sets, best-selling theater shows, and even photo shoots for fashion designers and magazines.
Most of Tyrol’s clients were some of the biggest names out of New York City, where she worked for years. So when painting on such a massive level, Tyrol and her team might overshoot the edges a bit, leaving a splash of color behind. For Tyrol, the mosaic must feel like a chronology of making a living on such a large scale — each color a reminder of a different project.
To an observer, it seems ironic that Tyrol, who lives and works atop a hill in Marshfield looking out toward Groton and the distant White Mountains of New Hampshire, would spend most of her time now working on her own fine art paintings (also quite large but certainly not huge) and as the illustrator of the delicate, tiny images accompanying “The Outside Story.” (It appears today on C3.) Since March 2002, Tyrol has been the sole artist to draw (and paint) the illustrations that illustrate the ecology essays that appear weekly in a handful of publications across New England.
“The Outside Story” started as a collaboration between the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Northern Woodlands, and is sponsored.
