Inspired by the “A Painting a Day” movement, Abbey Ryan started making daily paintings for her blog, Abbey Ryan Studio, on 9/23/07. Almost eight years later, Abbey’s blog has had over three-quarters of a million visitors from over 100 countries. Her paintings have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, Seth Godin’s bestselling book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensible?, and FOX’s Good Day Philadelphia, among many others. She was named #5 on the list of “49 Creative Geniuses” by Boost Blog Traffic. Through her blog, Abbey’s work is in over nine hundred private, public, and museum collections all over the world. Her work is represented by Gleason Fine Art and Mason Fine Art (Atlanta).
Read more
Inspired by the “A Painting a Day” movement, Abbey Ryan started making daily paintings for her blog, Abbey Ryan Studio, on 9/23/07. Almost eight years later, Abbey’s blog has had over three-quarters of a million visitors from over 100 countries. Her paintings have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, Seth Godin’s bestselling book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensible?, and FOX’s Good Day Philadelphia, among many others. She was named #5 on the list of “49 Creative Geniuses” by Boost Blog Traffic. Through her blog, Abbey’s work is in over nine hundred private, public, and museum collections all over the world. Her work is represented by Gleason Fine Art and Mason Fine Art (Atlanta).
Daily painting is Abbey’s meditative time and the best part of her day. Attempting to paint every day speaks to her interest in ritual, practice, classical still life and trompe l’oeil painting, and the complexities of Internet globalization in daily life.
In her work, Abbey investigates simple natural and handmade forms positioned in space so that their context is subdued. The space itself becomes inert, although the light and atmosphere of that space are ultimately what interest Abbey the most.
Included in her daily painting practice, Abbey has a few ongoing series exploring ‘new-old’ ideas: Golden Series, the light the shade (inspired by minimalist poetry of American poet Robert Lax), present moment (inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s writings), Golden Ratio, magic is real (inspired by Marco Leona’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) -- to name a few.
With her Dutch ancestry, Abbey’s Golden Series began after studying the work of Dutch Masters during her travels in Europe -- in particular Dutch painters like Rachel Ruysch, Caspar Netscher, and Abraham Mignon during her frequent visits to the Uffizi in Florence.
About the Dutch Golden Age, Abbey says, “Maybe it’s because I’m Dutch, maybe it’s because I myself tend more towards order, that I admire their eclectic and energetic mix of objects. What I find to be powerful in paintings such as those by the Dutch masters is not only the fervor, but also the balancing of the diversity of nature with the exquisiteness of human touch. In my own work, I tend to navigate more towards the subtle and exquisite. My Golden Series is grounded in this but foregrounds diversity, highlighting both dynamic and subtle relationships.”
Abbey studied with David A. Leffel at the Art Students League of New York. This experience, combined with her painting travels in Micronesia, Italy, Chile, Brazil, Cuba, South Korea, and Spain, continues to have the greatest impact on her work. She also completed undergraduate work in science, scientific illustration, and art at Arcadia University, graduate work at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and graduate work at Hunter College, NYC. Abbey was born and raised in New Jersey, USA.
In addition to working in her studio in Philadelphia, Abbey teaches Painting Workshops and offers one-on-one Private Painting Mentoring online instruction. She is also an Assistant Professor of studio art at Arcadia University.
Hide
