Marshfield artist captures the world around us
July 17, 2024 | By Steven Pappas | Times Argus Staff WriterEditor’s note: This story was originally published in the Times Argus on June 22, 2024.
MARSHFIELD—The first thing you notice walking into Adelaide Murphy Tyrol’s studio is the patchwork of colors on the floor. At first, one wonders, “Is that supposed to be a rug?” The colors, all in wide, short strokes, feel random.
Adelaide Murphy Tyrol works on a watercolor in her Marshfield studio. Her illustrations appear weekly as part of “The Outside Story” features. Photo by Jeb Wallace Brodeur/ Times Argus
But in fact, they are remnants of a career as a backdrop painter for large movie sets, best-selling theater shows, and even photo shoots for fashion designers and magazines. Most of Tyrol’s clients were some of the biggest names out of New York City where she worked for years. So when painting on such a massive level, Tyrol and her team might overshoot the edges a bit, leaving a splash of color behind.
For Tyrol, the mosaic must feel like a chronology of making a living on such a large scale — each color a reminder of a different project.
To an observer, it seems ironic that Tyrol, who lives and works atop a hill in Marshfield looking out toward Groton and the distant White Mountains of New Hampshire, would spend most of her time now working on her own fine art paintings (also quite large but certainly not huge) and as the illustrator of the delicate, tiny images accompanying “The Outside Story.”
Since March 2002, Tyrol has been the sole artist to draw (and paint) the illustrations alongside the ecology essays that appear weekly in a handful of publications across New England. “The Outside Story” started as a collaboration between the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Northern Woodlands, and is sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund and NHCF. It has continued loyally, across years, through the pandemic, and it shows no signs of stopping. For many newspapers around Vermont, it is a staple.
Artist Adelaide Murphy Tyrol works on a watercolor recently. Photo by Jeb Wallace Brodeur/Times Argus
From her thesis for her master’s of fine arts, Tyrol explains her art and the big/small conundrum:
“Our knowledge of the world constantly shifts and evolves according to the paths of our exploration. As a species, we tenaciously strive to understand the world, to explain the human enterprise and to establish codified systems of belief. Differences in culture, geographic location and political temperature affect how we research our ideas and intuitions and they ultimately determine the texture of our expression,” she wrote. “My work addresses the complex relationship between human culture and the natural world.”
Tyrol continued: “Concurrent with (25 years of backdrop) work, I have consistently maintained a quieter and more intimate career in Vermont as a botanical and natural history illustrator for books and magazines. This work is typically very small and exacting, and rendered with a technical ink pen and gouache. All elements must be verified by scientific data. It is very solitary work and is seldom time-sensitive. … This work affords me a direct portal into the scientific world.”
Thundersnow illustration by Adelaide Murphy Tyrol
She notes that her clients are “natural historians, science writers, entomologists, and botanists. In my studio I am surrounded by stuffed birds, pinned insects and field guides. Observing and studying the natural world has been a life-long interest and a great source of happiness for me. With this work, the subject matter is of the utmost importance and the art that results is negligible; in fact, no one but myself ever sees the original work. It is scanned, sent digitally, and the illustration goes into a dark drawer. I never display it, sell it or show it to anyone.”
During a recent conversation at her studio, a large panel with her painting of a giraffe looking over her left shoulder, Tyrol explains that unlike the backdrop commissions that could involve a team of people, lots of egos, drama and back-and-forth, the Northern Woodlands’ editor forwards the next week’s essay three or four days before the weekly deadline, which is 6 a.m. on Thursdays.
“I usually do it the night before,” she said. “I’m very comfortable with very short deadlines. So it’s much more exciting for me to have a very short period of time to do it.”
She eagerly reads each essay. Tyrol said she has always been interested in the natural world, so she has some general familiarity of most topics presented by the writers. Once she knows that week’s topic, she researches photos, illustrations and images. She does not copy a specific image, but incorporates elements of many to create what she hopes will be an original illustration that is recognizable but will provide a level of curiosity.
“I really want the drawing to stop people to look at the article,” she said. “I try to make it something other than just diagnostic. … That’s much more fun for me. But it has to be right.”
The day of the deadline, she scans the illustration and emails it off to her editor. Then, Tyrol pivots back to her personal work as an artist.
Opossum with babies. Illustration by Adelaide Murphy Tyrol
Simple math would suggest Tyrol likely has illustrated more than 1,500 illustrations for “The Outside Story” over the years. You name a creature indigenous to the Northeast (and even a few invasives) and Tyrol likely had drawn it. She does not exaggerate when she says she has drawers brimming with illustrations.
While “The Outside Story” subject matter will vary, she also mixes up the presentation.
Tyrol said she tries different kinds of papers or parchments. She will use inks made from walnut seeds, but then also pencils or charcoals. She has many options at her disposal, and only recently started using watercolors or colored pencils to provide another point of entry onto a gray page of newsprint.
“They don’t tell me what to draw; they don’t tell me how to draw it,” she said of Northern Woodlands. “It’s been a really, really nice relationship. … So I can experiment or do what I want.”
Singing thrush. Illustration by Adelaide Murphy Tyrol
In the early days of the collaboration, Tyrol did have to build in more time for an image to be conceived, drawn and eventually mailed and delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. But technology made that process short-lived.
Upon reflection, Tyrol could not point to a favorite illustration or a specific failure. Her editor has never rejected one of her illustrations, she said. “I don’t have a lot of what I consider failures, but I do have things that just didn’t work at all, and I had to redo it, but it doesn’t happen that often,” she said.
Years ago, Tyrol worked on illustrating an exhibit at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, and she tried her hand at some other “illustration” work. Conversely, her fine art paintings appear in New York City galleries; and her backdrops are well-documented in magazines, newspapers, videos and movies. It is the natural history work she has always been drawn to, she said.
“I would never take on another illustration job. … I don’t consider myself an illustrator. I consider myself a painter, and I’m so grateful (to be) able to have the opportunity to do this kind of thing,” she said. “It is like capturing pieces of the world all around us.”
Waterbury Roundabout publishes Adelaide Murphy Tyrol’s illustrations weekly with ‘The Outside Story’ features in the Community section.
Steven Pappas is executive editor/publisher of The Times Argus and Rutland Herald.