Amy Dryer is a local artist here in Calgary. Her works can currently be found in the Axis Gallery. She is heavily influenced by music and dance; these influence are expressed in her painting through the uses of arbitrary colour and stroke direction/weight. I want to show two of her paintings I really enjoy today.
Alley - Artist Amy Dryer
Oil on canvas
48 x 48 inches
Perhaps what is so exciting about Amy's work is that it pleasantly mixes the everyday with vibrant movement and unusual color. We can recognize as unique scenes of Canadian and even Calgarian lifestyle. She transforms her images from static to full of life as we see her brush skip across the canvas. The stokes flick, jump, and play with each other. The use of complementary colours keeps the marks from blending into each other; this creates an unusual lifting effect as some colours do not truly rest or lay flat on the canvas. Her painterly movement pulls use down the alley way, giving the illusion of walking or driving down the road as the scenery move by.
Oil on canvas
48 x 60 inches
This subject of two dancers lends itself well to Amy's painting style as she keeps her brush constantly moving. Mirroring the fluidity and spontaneity of the dancers. Ebb and flow of colour and composition creates diagonals, giving the painting motion. Keeping the dancers undefined and using multiple contour lines makes it as though the viewer is reading a series of impressions; of where the dancers have been, where they might be now, and the direction they are going.
As always please discussion of the art is welcome in the comments section. - Frances
