"An artist must be ruthless," he says. "No matter what others say, if the artist is not satisfied that he has done his best, he should consign the work to the trash can."
   Tiengo was originally taught as a boy of fourteen by the mater colourist, Antonio Tumiati, and while teacher and pupil both painted en plein air, the pupil has since taken the process several steps farther by designing and building what amounts to a portable studio. Into a partitioned box, its dimensions scaled to the artist's equipment, are packed paper and brushes, colours and water, a folded seat and ajustable legs.
   "It goes with me everywhere" , he says "I can paint from a car or a canoe, from a sloping hillside and from a city street. And I do. Sometimes I'll do quick sketches, if I'm short of time, and finish the work in the studio, but I much prefer to work outdoors." When he does, he works quickly and effortlessly, with seemingly little time for contemplation. Yet he captures both the incorporeal as well as the corporeal aspects of his subject, be it a forest glade, a river bank, or a city scene. In the latter, for example one "hears" the noisy bustle of the street as well as seing it. A winter landscape invokes an involuntarily shiver.
   His   versatile   brush  can   limn  the

He entered, on an impulse, a contest for furniture design and, somewhat to his surprise, took the top prizes in all categories. A new career seemed to be in the making. To be a furniture designer in Italy, however, required a degree in architecture. "So," says Tiengo, "I decided to go where I could work without such professional restrictions." When he couldn't obtain entry to the United States, he came to Canada, arriving in Montreal in 1956.
   In the years that followed, Tiengo established himself as one of the country's leading furniture designers, as is testified by his four national and twelve provincial awards for excellence. Free lancing in preference to fixed employment, Tiengo was able to schedule his commissions so that he had ample time for his other interests.
   His youthful fascination with flight, manifested in the construction of model airplanes, now led to the construction of an ultra-light airplane which he taught himself to fly. He had more time for such other pursuits as sluing and cycling in the Townships, remodeling his house in the Town of Mount Royal, and designing a house and studio in Sainte -Catherine-de-Hatley, near Ayers Cliff in the Townships and designing and building the furniture for it.
   And finally, after twenty odd years when his painting was subordinate to his other interests, he began to devote more time, at the urging of his wife Diethild Shott, an artist in her own right, to his water colours. His first solo show of Canadian landscapes was at Galeria Etruria in Adria in 1974. His success there encouraged him to open his second solo show at Galerie Colbert in Montreal in 1979. All 42 works were sold. He has had numerous solo shows in Canada and Italy. He showed twice in Italy last year, at Adria and Voghera, and is preparing for a show this year in Nice.
   "I have found" he says, "that my quick, spontaneous landscapes sell well in Italy while those which are more intensive and over which I've labored sell well in Canada." His work is to be found in numerous corporate and private collections in Canada, United States, West Germany and Italy. And somewhere along the way, he also made time to become a founding member of the Societe Canadienne de I'Aquarelle.