Monday, October 19, 2015

Another leaf mobile!

I am having more fun with mobilizing my painted leaves! These are two-sided like in the first one, but backed with a made-for-them custom painting with extra-bright inks, and green coated florist's wire and real swivels (which don't do much because the leaves weigh too little to have enough momentum).




Sadly, I'm out of ceiling hooks, so I had to hang it from the ceiling lamp. If I keep doing these, I'm going to have to make some kind of hanging rack, I guess!

Vine Maple Mobile #2 Ink & colored pencil on 2-ply rag paper, with black wire $60
If you'd like to purchase this mobile, please contact me at patriciaryanart.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

A leaf mobile

I finally have a use for the leftover parts of failed ink-and-pencil paintings that I've been saving all these years because they were too pretty to throw away—making mobiles out of them. This house has an old hanging lamp hook in one corner that I didn't want to hang anything heavy from because it would bonk me on the head when I'm picking up a guitar off the rack. The now-obvious missing piece is a nice lightweight mobile:


It has a magical turquoise leaf:


This one's as simple as you can get, but I've got plans for bigger ones. More fun!

Vine Maple Mobile #1 Ink & colored pencil on 2-ply art paper with copper wire $60
If you'd like to purchase this mobile, please contact me at patriciaryanart.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

A very arty party


If you could do a combined show with any other artists you know, whom would you pick? Ones who like your art as much as you like theirs, whose work is excellent, yet plays so well with yours that the impact of every piece is elevated? Friendly, outgoing artists, articulate and interesting, people you'd want to be friends with no matter what their field is? I am that lucky with this show.


I know because several of the attendees said so, that Leslie's photographs and my paintings showed them a single subject through two very different visions. Roxanne, the gallery owner, had said after we finished hanging the works that she was happy about us combining them, letting the designs and colors rather than authorship dictate the arrangement on each wall, approaching the show as a collaboration. I was beyond happy that the viewers got it, that they saw why we did what we did.


We had a full house of friends most of the night, including a lot of artists, many of whom I'd never met. I had so many great conversations that my head is still spinning. I offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone who came.

I wish I'd taken more pictures!

Thursday, October 1, 2015

The Light Taking Form show is up!


All ten of my paintings and (if I remember right) sixteen of Leslie Ebert's prints are hung in the gallery! The official opening is Saturday, October 3rd, from 6 to 9 PM, but it will also be open for Oregon City First Friday Night, October 2nd, from 5 to 8PM. Leslie and I will be there both nights, and I think Amelia Armitage will be there as well to present her lovely organic sculptures.

I didn't take any pictures last night when we finished, but I will get some this weekend. We decided to intermix the paintings and photos so they play off against each other, and my impression last night was that it's kind of a mind massage to look at them together. There's a lot of commonality of colors, plus the shared theme of Light and Form, but a very obvious difference in the appearance of the works. Where the mixed media works are very matte and brightly colored in an abstract-painterly way, Leslie's prints glow more subtly, although there is plenty of color in them—where the light hits them they softly shine with iridescence, so it feels as though you're seeing the show outside in a park, with the sunlight playing around you.

If you have a favorite color, it's in this show.