Abstract landscape; reds and greens. House-shape upper left.

Stephen Duren was born in Fairfield, a community set amidst the Coastal Ranges of California and located halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento. Growing up he would spend time on his grandfather’s ranch in nearby Vacaville, slowly being wooed by the light and landscape of the foothills. His time alone with the land would prove to be both formative and foundational in his approach to art and life. It drove him to paint outdoors, to seek solace from loneliness in nature, and to filter much of his painting through the land and amber light of Northern California. During these periods of pleinair painting, he absorbed countless textures and patterns from the landscape, including that particular quality of light that is unique to California. This visual vocabulary became the foundation for his painting, moving from realism to abstraction.