Jarid del Deo
Jarid del Deo in his studio
Evolving Thoughts on Jarid del Deo:
I really like the work of del Deo. I just came across him recently (thank you @folesdog), and I am still learning about him as an artist.
The painting below, Green on Red (2025), was the first work of his that I encountered. When I look at a painting like this, I tend to analyze what is happening and why I am responding to it.
There are a few things going on here that immediately caught my attention.
This feels very much like a photograph.
When I suspect an artist is working from a photographic reference, I try to assess how successfully they transform that source into something uniquely their own. My personal rule is that if you use a photograph as the basis for a painting, you invite especially hard criticism. The painting has to earn its existence.
I think del Deo succeeds here. The strangely cropped image becomes less a source photograph and more a platform for exploring color, structure, and mark making.
The color.
There is probably not much that needs to be said. The color is simply remarkable.
The mark making.
This is where I become particularly interested in the work. Much of what I have responded to in his paintings from the past year feels like a dialogue with earlier painters. Perhaps I am stretching things somewhat, but I see echoes of Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, artists who poured paint across the canvas in an effort to conjure the sensation of a place rather than describe it literally.
Piano Music #1 (2025) and Piano Music #2 (2026)
I'm including my two favorite paintings by del Deo in the gallery below. I think the best way to experience these works is to click on one of the images. Move back and forth between the two.
When I look at these two paintings, I don't want to think too hard about the literal places they depict. The landscapes feel slightly abstracted, existing somewhere between observation and invention.
As a viewer, I find myself standing on a hillside overlooking a small peninsula extending into a bay at night. The moon reflects across the water. Brush and vegetation occupy the foreground. The experience of the place feels surprisingly concrete, yet I cannot quite locate where I am.
This ambiguity is part of what makes the paintings so compelling. Much of del Deo's other work appears to begin with aggressively cropped photographs, but these paintings feel different.
If these paintings were made en plein air, I would love to visit the site and attempt a few compositions myself. But perhaps the uncertainty is the point. The paintings feel specific enough to remember and impossible enough to fully place.
Night Time Plein Air Painting
According to his bio, Jarid lives and works in Maine. From his interviews it sounds like he lives in a rural area.
Current Thoughts on Jarid del Deo
(These thoughts will probably change over time.)
What initially drew me to del Deo's work were the colors and compositions. There is something distinctive about the way he organizes a painting. I'm still trying to understand his process and how he arrives at these finished images.
Upon reflection, I think del Deo's work participates in a broader movement within contemporary painting. This is what I think is new today. I think del Deo is part of an emerging movement of figurative painters that freely incorporates the discoveries and experiments of the past century.
I can see traces of many different influences in del Deo's work. There are hints of Peter Doig's sensibility, Marsden Hartley's clouds, the mood and cropping of Lois Dodd's paintings, and lessons inherited from several generations of abstract painters. None of these references dominate the work. Instead, they combine to form a personal visual language that feels distinctly his own.
I really like this del Deo’s work. Over the last several years he has produced a number of paintings that I consider nearly perfect. I appreciate the patience evident in the work. His compositions are exceptional, and many of his most recent paintings continue to surprise me.
It will be interesting to see where del Deo goes next.
Other Artists to Look At:
Peter Doig: Elder Statesmen of the movement.
Link of Merit:
My work in reaction to del Deo’s Piano Music paintings