Tina Cobelle-Sturges

Tina Cobelle Sturges is best known for her radiant, colorful, and approachable paintings that blend small brush strokes with pointilistic technique to animate the canvas and bring country and city landscapes to life. Her unique impressionist and folk art style reflects her dedication to a bright palette, careful sensitivity to perceptible details and a commitment to harmoniously capturing the rhythm of daily human life in an engaging and authentic setting.

Sturges’ extensive portfolio of paintings demonstrates her ability to strike a balance between realistic and impressionistic genres. The signature of her style is her ability to draw upon the very nuances of a scene forming an emotionally calming interaction with the viewer. She paints equally successfully reflecting the sensitivity of small town life on a New England main street or the busy urban streetscapes of New York City. In both cases, her renditions of structured landscapes dabbed with human activity are truly captivating and memorable. She seamlessly weaves elements of nature with urban landmarks resulting in a simultaneously energetic and soothing composition. Sturges approaches each canvas as an individual expression, anticipating her audience’s desire to emotionally connect with the scene, be amused or find a peaceful individual moment. Her choice of place, color and activity embrace the cadence and harmony of the scene as it comes alive through paint, brush and canvas.

Sturges grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her father, internationally known and prolific artist Charles Cobelle, as her primary art teacher. She studied at the Silvermine Guild and the Wooster School and with the accomplished painter Daniel Greene. Of her artistic upbringing she remarks, “As Cobelle’s child, I would see him constantly creating and painting everything that would bring joy and happiness to the world around him.” The influence of Cobelle, who is regarded as one of the last links to the Open Line School of Paris and who studied with Chagall and Dufy, is noticeably evident in her work. Painting in oil and watercolor, she has completed numerous murals and other commissioned works for private collectors and is a contract artist with American Artists Group, a publisher of fine art stationery products. Her cards are featured on the front cover of the Birchcraft Studio Book for 2008 and 2009. Her vibrant painting of Ridgefield’s Main Street was featured on the cover of the commemorative millennium book, “Ridgefield Enters the 21st Century,” and is sold as limited edition lithographs.

Most recently, Sturges has collaborated with the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum on a painting titled “The Porches of Ridgefield” – a charmingly passionate composition that pays tribute to the Aldrich’s architectural landmark “Old Hundred”, Ridgefield’s 300-year history and enchanting, antique main street homes. The “Porches” piece is a significant work for Sturges as it vividly reflects her passion for the community, its traditions and its people.

In May of 2011, a Vietnam War Memorial mural that was painted by Sturges was unveiled and is now hanging permanently in the Ridgefield Town Hall to honor the men and women that served our country during that time.

Richard Klein, Aldrich Exhibitions Director observes, “Tina Sturges’ paintings and prints have an affinity with both Impressionism and Folk Art. Their luminosity partakes of the light and color effects pioneered by artists such as Monet and Renoir, and their subject matter reflects the honest approach of the best American Folk painting. Sturges’ American scenes are both beautiful and entertaining.”

Martin Dash, American Artists Group:
“Tina Cobelle-Sturges is a romantic realist painter from rock-ribbed New England. Her paintings show meticulous detail but there is always a touch of romance in the viewing. Growing up with her artist father, Charles Cobelle, his flamboyant, liberating style inevitably affected her approach to the art and while very different is the source of the emotional touch she conveys in her artwork.”