This week’s featured artist is Abbey Ryan, a very talented painter from the East Coast who currently lives and teaches in Philadelphia.
Abbey described her daily paintings as a means of supporting her studio work, which, if you have a moment, is pretty fascinating stuff as well. The following pieces, however, can all be found at her daily painting blog.
One of the things which set Abbey’s paintings apart, for me, were the intricate details and patterns in many of her still life pieces. Take for example, Pears on Silk, one of Abbey’s several pear and pattern paintings.
Many daily painters would have just painted the pears alone—it’d be quicker and easier—but that pattern adds so much to the painting that I can’t imagine it without.
And of course the pears are also exquisitely rendered, showcasing both excellent draftsmanship and painterly qualities. Usually you’ll see one of those characteristics emphasized more than the other, but that’s not the case here.
These candy canes are fantastic too, for many of the same reasons.
The details are incredible but it still feels like paint. Compositionally it’s smart—arranging the candy canes to form a heart—and that touch of gold light occasionally reflecting off of the wrappers is absolutely perfect.
In fact, in nearly all of Abbey’s paintings there are subtle details that shouldn’t be overlooked. In M&M’s (spectrum) it’s the faint yet colorful reflections on the white tabletop, and the way the yellow M&M picks up hints of orange and green from the melt-in-your-mouth morsels around it.
Of course I’m kind of a minimalist at heart (and I love M&M’s) so perhaps that’s why this piece appeals to me as well.
To see more of Abbey Ryan’s artwork, check out RyanStudio.blogspot.com or visit AbbeyRyan.com for her studio paintings, illustrations and design work.