The watercolors of the late Tina Duque are on exhibit now through Dec. 31 at the Locust Valley Library: 12 years too late.
Duque was excited to have a one-woman show, but her breast cancer returned when she was days short of 50.
Recently, her mother, Irene Duque, joined the Locust Valley Garden Club that meets in the library, which reminded her of the exhibit. Irene and her daughter, Katia, decided it was time to share Tina’s work with the world.
Tina graduated from Barnard College with a dual major in English and Biology.
For 35 years she worked as a medical writer and won a Mobius Advertising Award for her book for children undergoing MRI testing.
She also wrote poems and received many awards for them.
Tina’s poems are on display with the paintings. They are short, accessible and insightful.
Watercolor painting was her avocation. They are naturalistic, and in the best tradition of watercolors, tell the story but without laboring over the details. They are fresh and lively.
Viewers will recognize the English Cottage at Planting Fields Arboretum Historic State Park in Oyster Bay. There is a lovely café scene by a beach that has freshness and spontaneity.
Another painting is of a farm scene that shows watercolor at its natural flowing best.
Her cousin, Leonard Walczyk, said she was beautiful and deep. “Her art reminds me of Winslow Homer,” he said.
Lucy DeVito, a garden club member said, “I love her watercolor technique. It’s very natural and flowing and has a soothing feeling.”
Tina comes from a long line of artists. Her cousin, Leonard Walczyk, shared the story of their grandfather, Edward A. Chmurzynski, who was an art teacher in Poland.
When the Nazis invaded the country in 1939, he was arrested and put into solitary confinement for two years. He kept his spirits up by undoing threads from cloth to embroider a Sacred Heart of Jesus.
After the war the family first immigrated to Brazil, where he again taught art. They left South America to come to the United States in 1956.
Leonard said over the years, his grandfather used his art to express the horrors of the Holocaust so people wouldn’t forget. One of his religious works is on exhibit at the American Military Academy at West Point, and a few of his paintings are included in this show.
Tina’s father, Fernando Duque, wrote poetry, and one of his pieces is in the 1958 Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy yearbook.
Tina’s sister, Katia, said, “Tina instilled a love of the arts in me by taking me to exhibits, shows and concerts”.
But Katia’s strengths are in math and physics and today she is a civil/structural engineer, which is an art in itself.
Irene’s mother, Sofie, showed her artistry sewing, embroidering and painting Easter eggs. In her early 80s, she blossomed into an artist, and a few of her paintings are also on display.
Irene said her mother watched painters on TV and decided to try it, too.
“When I paint, I’m in a different world,” she said.
Irene shares her mother’s talents and adds floral decoration and sculpture. She has enhanced garden club tables with imaginative centerpieces that are always surprising.
A few paintings of cats done by Tina’s goddaughter, Adrienne Jane Lombardo, are in the show. A musician, she is a singer-songwriter, jewelry designer and painter.
Over 50 people attended the show’s reception on Nov. 23. One of them was Julian Silk, a college friend of Tina’s.
He drove from Maryland to attend the event.
“Tina was a talented, brave, lovely and beautiful woman and I was totally in love with her and still am,” he said. “She had that kind of beauty.”
