Artwork by Daryl Curran

Daryl Curran, Artist

Daryl grew up in Raton, NM and attended New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, NM.

After a hitch in the US Army in 1956, he landed in Taos, NM working with the Forest Service as an engineer surveying forest logging roads. The art around Taos at that time wasn‚t as well known as it is today but the beauty of the countryside and people will draw anyone to express their feelings with a camera or drawing lines on paper. This he did without having any training in his school system in art, except a little finger painting in grade school. Daryl, his wife Kay and their three children Charlie, Steve, and Bonnie came to Oregon in 1961 to work heavy construction with Peter Kiewit Son‚s Co, working his way up to superintendent. His art ability just lay dormant until 1984 when he attended a class at LCC in oil painting. When he went to Kodiak, Alaska on a job, he started painting landscapes and animals on weekends.

After 26 years as superintendent over major construction projects including dams, freeways, Florence jetty extension, first off shore oil platform in Prudoe Bay, AK, and the I-90 Vent building in Seattle, Curran retired in 1990.

He is now into his retirement years, and with Kay and their little dog Pedro have been traveling back and forth across the United States taking a lot of pictures and maybe one or two might end up on a canvas. With not much more to do he took up Beekeeping and is now trying to stay with five hives which produced 650 lb of honey last year. Daryl says, if you like honey , you‚ll love his; and the prices are very affordable on all of his work and hobby by products. His other hobbies are making jewelry from the arrow points he flint-knaps from obsidian.

Volunteering seems to be one of Daryl‚s favorite pastimes. Starting on our new Emerald Empire Art Gallery on 5th and Main St. in Springfield, OR. Putting in hundreds of man hours to get it where it is today along with help from many more volunteers. He also did volunteer work with his church. One of his favorite is with the Pass sport in Time program run by the US Forest Service. This program provides opportunities for the public to work with professional archaeologists and historians. Projects include diverse activities such as archaeological excavation, survey, oral history, or historic structure restoration. Daryl and Kay have volunteered over a 1,000 hours each. One of Daryl‚s paintings (Fort Umpqua, Oregon, 1856-1862) was carried on the front cover of their national magazine. The picture story shows part of the old Umpqua Fort with the PIT volunteers working inside the window panes called"Windows of the Past". The painting is now hanging at the Siuslaw NF, Waldport Ranger District Station in Waldport OR.

When he retired, he studied art under Diane Ronning, Kathy Whitson, Kathy Allen, Maureen Mannila and Ken Braunner. He says he has had a lot of fine teachers! Daryl has won many ribbons at the county fair and at the EEAA Mayor‚s Art Show in Springfield, OR. He has sold paintings and prints in Taos and Santa Fe, NM, Lexington, Mass, PA, NC, GA , in the Midwest, in Oregon and Washington.

He says he loves the excitement of the Southwest art that he has done and also the wild animals of the northwestern states. Daryl has done a number of scenes from work in his early days when he was a ranch hand working on a couple of big ranches in northern New Mexico. Then while going to college he worked for the US Forest Service in Libby, Montana fighting forest fires during the summer break. He continues to challenge himself with each of his paintings, but with love of what he does, it is really worth the time of researching and the care that goes into each one.