First Lady Andrea Conte Welcomes the Original Artwork of Award-Winning Artist Elizabeth Brandon at the Tennessee State Museum - 2008
Master oil painter Elizabeth Brandon has donated an original painting entitled, "Roses and Eucalyptus," to the Tennessee State Museum.
Tennessee First Lady Andrea Conte and Museum Executive Director Lois Riggins-Ezzell accepted the artwork at the museum on July 21st. This 12" x 16" oil on board painting, which was chosen by the First Lady, will be part of the museum's permanent collection.
"As governors come and go, this painting will remain as an artistic treasure presented to the citizens of the Volunteer State as a generous gift from the artist... and this will be the last time that its magnificent gold frame will be handled without curatorial gloves," Riggins-Ezzell commented as she received the painting. Having just returned from a museum trip to New York, Riggins-Ezzell compared Brandon's work to the three Johannes Vermeer paintings she viewed at the renowned Frick Collection.
"Brandon's technique truly has an Old Master essence to it with the luminosity and depth of a Vermeer; something quite difficult for any painter to accomplish," Riggins-Ezzell noted while discussing the artist's talent.
Brandon's work now joins that of her husband, award-winning master artist Joseph Sulkowski, who has two paintings in the museum's collection. She said she "is dedicated to practicing the Old Master principles of capturing light and atmosphere on her canvases," and feels that she has mastered a true poetic interpretation in her works of art. She reveals her natural beauty in her culinary subjects in her still lifes of fruit, vegetables and flowers.
As an artist working in the Poetic Realist Tradition and as a contemporary painter in the 21st century, Brandon's work has been featured on the front cover of the acclaimed Cook's Illustrated magazine for the past seven years. Additionally, her paintings are held in many private collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.