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Stacked Stones (Cairn) (present moment)


Stacked Stones (Cairn) (present moment)
oil on linen on panel, 2024, 10"x8"
Sold

It's been 2 years since I stacked stones for a painting. A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones, and the word cairn comes from middle Gaelic. Since prehistory, they have been built and used as burial monuments. In modern times, cairns are also built as landmarks, for ceremonial purposes, and to mark trails, among other purposes. 

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Stacked Stones (Cairn) (2017), or other paintings from my "present moment" series, or my "magic is still possible" series, my golden series, or a bunch of my trompe l'oeil paintings.

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Three Figs on a Silver Plate


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Still Life with Wabi Sabi Korean Bowl and Rainier Cherries

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I brought this amazing and unique wabi sabi handmade bowl back with me from South Korea in 2013. The last time I painted it was in 2016. If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see other paintings of what I think of as my "wabi sabi" pottery.

Wabi sabi is not easily described in words, but when I teach my workshops and private painting mentoring online, I often share my thoughts on handmade objects, and the spirit and gesture embedded in them. If you're interested, Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren is the seminal 1994 classic volume on the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. This painting is part of my Paintings of Handmade Pottery work, here's another wabi sabi bowl of mine from Patagonia, Arizona, and here's a 2013 post of mine about wabi sabi.

P.S. Just as a reminder: I'm planning to migrate this painting email newsletter to a different service—I'll be moving to one provided by my new website host so that my website and newsletter are housed under the same roof. If you're a subscriber: here's what you need to know in order to keep getting my new painting emails: my newsletter emails will soon-ish be sent from "info@abbeyryan.com"—so if you don't want to miss out on any emails, please add "info@abbeyryan.com" to your address book / contacts list / safelist. Contact me if you have any questions!

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Golden Series: Figs, Apricot, Blackberry, Cherries, Peach with Leaves, & Silver Cup

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The last time I painted something in my Golden Series was in 2018 and 2017. If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see other paintings from my Golden Series.

P.S. Just as a reminder: I'm planning to migrate this painting email newsletter to a different service—I'll be moving to one provided by my new website host so that my website and newsletter are housed under the same roof. If you're a subscriber: here's what you need to know in order to keep getting my new painting emails: my newsletter emails will soon-ish be sent from "info@abbeyryan.com"—so if you don't want to miss out on any emails, please add "info@abbeyryan.com" to your address book / contacts list / safelist. Contact me if you have any questions!

To get my painting in your inbox, sign up at the bottom of this page.

Still life with Two Blackberries and Seckel Pear


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Just as a reminder: I'm planning to migrate this painting email newsletter to a different service—I'll be moving to one provided by my new website host so that my website and newsletter are housed under the same roof. If you're a subscriber: here's what you need to know in order to keep getting my new painting emails: my newsletter emails will soon-ish be sent from "info@abbeyryan.com"—so if you don't want to miss out on any emails, please add "info@abbeyryan.com" to your address book / contacts list / safelist. Contact me if you have any questions!

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of pears or blackberries.

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Still Life with Greek Bottle, Hand-picked Grapes and Grape Leaf (the light / the shade)

Still Life with Greek Bottle, Hand-picked Grapes and Grape Leaf (the light / the shade), 2017
Oil on linen on panel, 8” x 10” unframed, $3500

Just as a reminder: I'm planning to migrate this painting email newsletter to a different service—I'll be moving to one provided by my new website host so that my website and newsletter are housed under the same roof. If you're a subscriber: here's what you need to know in order to keep getting my new painting emails: my newsletter emails will soon-ish be sent from "info@abbeyryan.com"—so if you don't want to miss out on any emails, please add "info@abbeyryan.com" to your address book / contacts list / safelist. Contact me if you have any questions!

To see painting, life (baby!), and studio photos -- follow me here.

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Still Life of Pink Peonies with Ants and Glass Bottle (larger painting)


Still Life of Pink Peonies with Ants and Glass Bottle
oil on linen on panel, 2024, 8"x6"
Private Collection

This is the same bottle I painted in Still Life with Scarlet Runner Beans and Glass Bottle (A Meditation on 13 Years) on September 27, 2020. If you're curious about ants and peonies, read this.

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of peonies or flowers or glass bottles or commissions and "larger-than-auction paintings."

To donate to support my work & studio practice, click here. To donate or apply to my Mindful Studio Practice Scholarship, click here. To get my painting in your inbox, sign up here.

Still Life of Pink Peonies in a Crystal Vase (larger painting)


Still Life of Pink Peonies in a Crystal Vase
oil on linen on panel, 2024, 12"x9"
Sold

If you're interested, see painting, life (baby!), and studio photos -- follow me here. 

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Pink Peonies in a Silver Cup (2020), or a bunch of my paintings of peonies or flowers.

To donate to support my work & studio practice, click here. To donate or apply to my Mindful Studio Practice Scholarship, click here. To get my painting in your inbox, sign up here.

Pink Peonies in a Silver Cup


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I am excited to announce that I'm planning to migrate my painting email newsletter to a different service—I'll be moving to one provided by my new website host so that my website and newsletter are housed under the same roof. Here's what you need to know in order to keep getting my new painting emails: my newsletter emails will soon be sent from "info@abbeyryan.com"—so if you don't want to miss out on any emails, please add "info@abbeyryan.com" to your address book / contacts list / safelist. If you aren't subscribed already, to get my new paintings in your inbox, sign up here for free. Contact me if you have any questions!

Also, if you're interested, follow my painting, life (baby), and studio photos here. 

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Pear and Silver Cup (2022), Still Life with Seckel Pear and Silver Cup (2019), or a bunch of my paintings of peonies or flowers or silver objects. Also, if you look closely, in the silver cup you can see my self-portrait reflection. Here are a bunch of my paintings with self portrait reflections. 

To donate to support my work & studio practice, click here. To donate or apply to my Mindful Studio Practice Scholarship, click here. To get my painting in your inbox, sign up here.

White Peony in a Round Vase


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I'm back from maternity leave! The baby is doing amazing, and we are soaking up every single second. I won't be back to posting very often, but I did want to share peonies because peony season is so powerful and short and sweet. The last time I painted peonies was in 2022. If you're interested, see painting, life, and studio photos and follow me here. I also have some important news coming in one of my next couple of posts, so keep an eye out.

If you look closely, in the bowl you can see my self-portrait reflection. Here are a bunch of my paintings with self portrait reflections. If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Pink Peony Buds (2021), bougainvillea in a glass cup (the light / the shade) (2018), or a bunch of my paintings of peonies or flowers.

To donate to support my work & studio practice, click here. To donate or apply to my Mindful Studio Practice Scholarship, click here. To get my painting in your inbox, sign up here.

News - Personal Announcement

I posted some news on my instagram -- I’m thrilled to share that I’m pregnant and about to give birth sometime this week. My wife and I are over the moon! Read more, see some photos, and follow me there.

To donate to support my work & studio practice, click here. To donate or apply to my Mindful Studio Practice Scholarship, click here. To get my painting in your inbox, sign up here.

"Turn of a Friendly Card" and "Natura morta con formaggio, frutta, noci e vino" (two piece; Large commission)

Turn of a Friendly Card (top painting)

Natura morta con formaggio, frutta, noci e vino (bottom painting)

oil on panel, 20 x 24 inches each

Private collection (commission)

This two piece commission is another of my recent large commissions. Click on each image to see a closer view of each 20"x24" painting. I worked closely with the collector on the still life elements and other personal details that they wished to include. 

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New website

If you're interested, I have a new website at abbeyryan.com:



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Still Life with Figs, Pecorino Romano Cheese, and Temmoku Bottle (the light, the shade) (larger painting)


Still Life with Figs, Pecorino Romano Cheese, and Temmoku Bottle (the light, the shade)
oil on linen on panel, 2023, 11"x14"
Sold - Private collection

"Art after all is but an extension of language to the expression of sensations too subtle for words." ~Robert Henri

This new larger still life was inspired by an 11x14" painting I did 10 years ago in December 2013, Still Life with Figs, Bleu Cheese, and Temmoku Bottle (the light, the shade), which you can see here. The 2023 composition is loosely a mirror of the one from 2013. If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of cheese or bottles or figs, or other paintings in my "the light / the shade" series inspired by the poetry of Robert Lax.

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The Improbable Question: Still Life with Stacked PB&J and Scarlet Tanager (diptych) (Large commission)

The Improbable Question: Still Life with Stacked PB&J and Scarlet Tanager (diptych)
oil on linen on panel, two panels, 18 x 14 inches each
Private collection (commission)

This diptych is one of my recent large commissions. Below also is a closer view of each 18"x14" painting in the diptych, with some detail views.

I worked closely with the collector on the temporal elements and other personal details that they wished to include. On a related note, if you're interested in reading about still life and reflections on space and time, below is an interesting excerpt from the Introduction in Matilde Marcolli's Still life as a Model of Spacetime (2012) essay.

This diptych was also selected as a finalist for the 16th International Art Renewal Competition (ARC) Salon. ARC reviewed over 5,400 paintings from 75 countries.

Left panel:


Right panel:

 

 If you're interested, below are some detail views:






As I noted above, here is the excerpt from the Introduction in Matilde Marcolli's Still life as a Model of Spacetime (2012) essay:

"Still life is the most philosophical genre of traditional figurative painting. It saw some of its most famous manifestations in the Flemish tradition of the XVII century, but it evolved and survived as a meaningful presence through much of XX century art, adopted by avant-garde movements such as cubism and dadaism.

The purpose of this essay is to dig into the philosophical meaning behind the still life painting and show how this genre can be regarded as a sophisticated method to present in a pictorial and immediately accessible visual way, reflections upon the evolving notions of space and time, which played a fundamental role in the parallel cultural developments of Western European mathematical and scientific thought, from the XVII century, up to the present time. 

A challenge for the artists of today becomes then how to continue this tradition. Is the theme of still life, as it matured and evolved throughout the dramatic developments of XX century art, still a valuable method to represent and reflect upon the notions of spacetime that our current scientific thinking is producing, from the extra dimensions of string theory to the spin foams and spin networks of loop quantum gravity, to non-commutative spaces, or information based emergent gravity? Some may feel that the notions of spacetime contemporary physics and mathematics are dealing with nowadays are too remote from the familiar everyday objects that form the basic jargon of still life paintings. However, much the same could be said about the notions of relativistic spacetime and the bizarre world of quantum mechanics that were trickling down to the collective imagination in the early XX century, and yet the artists of the avant-garde movements of the time were ready to jump onto concepts such as non-euclidean geometry, higher dimensions, and the like, and bring them into contact with a drastic revision of what it means to 'represent' the everyday objects that surround us, and that come to occupy a profoundly altered concept of space and time. So, I believe, the challenge is a valid one, even in the light of the ever more complex landscape of today's thinking about the concepts of space and time, and I take the occasion to make an open call here to the practicing artists, to take up the challenge and paint a new chapter of the 'still life' genre, suitable for the minds of the current century." Keep reading here.

Marcolli shares on their webpage that they are "'a drifter of Dadaist persuasion' (computational linguist, sometime physicist and occasional mathematician)." 

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Two Golden Pears (present moment)


Click to view auction 
(3 day auction ends at ~4:30pm on Tues. 8/1)

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" ~Thoreau

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see still life with copper pot and pears (the light, the shade) (2017) [Available as a signed print HERE], Pear with Antique Pewter Mug (2021), Hand-picked Pear with Leaves (present moment) (2021), or a bunch of my paintings of pears or paintings from my present moment series.

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Still life with Delft Vase and Blackberries (the light / the shade)

Still life with Delft Vase and Blackberries (the light / the shade)
oil on linen on panel, 2023, 4"x5"
Sold - Private collection

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." ~Robert Henri

If you're interested, learn more about and see my paintings from my "the light / the shade" series painted during my residency on this islands of Patmos and Lipsi, Greece in 2017. You can also see other paintings from my the light / the shade series here. 

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Still Life with Tart Cherries and Silver Creamer (with Self Portrait Reflection)


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If you look closely, in the creamer you can see my self-portrait reflection. Here are a bunch of my paintings with self portrait reflections. These cherries and this creamer were given to me as a gift -- follow that link to see some of my still life paintings that were inspired by the generosity of others.

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." ~Thoreau

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Cherries and Silver Creamer (with Self Portrait Reflection) (2022), or a bunch of my paintings of cherries or this creamer.

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Tart Cherries in a Silver Compote



These cherries were given to me as a gift -- follow that link to see some of my still life paintings that were inspired by the generosity of others.

"My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
 
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
 
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
 
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever."
~ Messenger by Mary Oliver

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Strawberries in a Silver Compote (with Snow Reflections) (2018) or a bunch of my paintings of cherries or this silver compote.

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Tart Cherries with Leaves (the light / the shade)


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"There is no art without contemplation." ~Robert Henri

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Cherries, Silver Bowl, and Dutch Cheese (present moment) [available as a signed print HERE], Still Life with Four Cherries on Marble (2016), or a bunch of my paintings of cherries.

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