About the Work

Painting, like music, is about expression – making marks or sounds from elation to fury, from contemplation to exuberance. When it works, the self disappears.

I have been attracted to abstract expressionism from my first encounters with Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell and the Japanese painter Shinoda. In 2000, I studied with Barbara Sternberger in a summer course at Western Washington University. I admire Barbara’s work – her use of color, of line, of balance and grace. Barbara’s course confirmed my feeling that oil painting was my medium.

When painting at my best, I am oblivious to my surroundings, totally absorbed in the action of moving paint onto paper or canvas.

I am grateful to be part of a community that embraces art and artists, experimenters and masters.

— Barbara Ryan