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Growing up on the side of Missionary Ridge, Durinda experienced the scenic beauty of the Chattanooga area. She filled sketchbooks with drawings of nature and her imagination. Encouraged by her high school art teacher, Durinda was selected for the Georgia Governor's Honors Program in art as a sophomore. After receiving her master’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she taught classes in gifted education in Georgia public schools, served as art department chairperson at The McCallie School in Chattanooga, and taught as an adjunct professor at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. For the last four years she has been teaching from her studio and also instructing workshops throughout the southeast region and in France and Italy. Acting as Director of Visual Art for the Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts, she gets the opportunity to work with Alabama educators every summer with art lessons they can incorporate into their curriculums. She enjoys the role of instructor as much as that of professional artist. Working with students gives her inspiration for her work and allows her to share her love of art with others.
Durinda finds inspiration for many of her paintings in European and Southern architecture and landscapes. Many studies done on site (en plein air) are transformed in the studio into larger master works of art. She travels abroad every year to paint in different areas of France and Italy. Working in both watercolor and oil, she uses the medium that best suits the subject. To enhance her professional growth, she has studied with master artists such as Wayne Wu aws, Tom Lynch, Jack Beal, and David Leffel opa. She is a signature member of Georgia, Tennessee, and Louisiana Watercolor Societies, a member of Oil Painter’s of America, Plein Air Florida, Plein Air Georgia, and the Association for Visual Artists. As an invited artist for the last four years, she paints at Walt Disney's World's Epcot Flower Festival every spring along with eleven other artists from across the country.
Her award-winning works have been in numerous international and national exhibitions and are represented in corporate and private collections both in the US and abroad. Durinda accepts a limited number of commissions yearly and enjoys working with clients to provide them the artwork that they envision. She maintains a studio in northwest Georgia where she lives with her life partner, William, and their feline companion, Clarice. She can be found in the winter in Siesta Key, Florida.
About DURINDA CHEEK
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