Fei Fei Sun – Basking in Her Own Light

Oil on Canvas, 48×60 inches, 2013
By Anna Fox Ryan

Illuminated Portraiture

Power Over, 48×48 inches, oil on three panels

Last year I began working abstractly.  My interest in power was in flux. No longer interested in the power of industry nor the power plays of politics, I turned inward and began looking at the power of self. This is an interest that continues to grow and the paint has been an amazing vehicle to explore with. Paint lets me speak in a language that is less concrete.

The painting above is about relationships. It evolved very organically. During a rough spell I put on my headphones, turned on my hemi-sync and began painting. My original plan for the image quickly changed and I just let go and allowed myself to move and channel the image. My glasses were off, which helped because it kept me from analyzing what I was doing. I just allowed the painting to develop through my hand. After the session I stepped back to find the image and the message clearly written in front of me. What I’d felt during the session was an amazement at the illusion of control.  In this life experience we can at times feel weak, powerless and bullied. At other times we may feel strong but perhaps tempted to abuse the power given to us. NO matter our stance, our actions, there is a greater force, orchestrating it all. Call it karma, the universal plan, greater subconscious or God. Call it whatever you want. It is the great balancer. So for me this painting is about trusting my relationship with this greater power, regardless of my place in the world.  For me, this painting is proof of a higher power.

Abstract work like this lets me look at emotion, sensation, experience, etc without having to describe anything concrete. Sometimes things just cant be categorized. So, it’s nice to have the freedom to paint without being bound to a form. There are times when I crave form though. I paint about the human experience, why not blend the human experience with the human? So these abstractions ended up supporting a series of portraiture that I’ve recently begun. The two images shown above are some of the early sketches for the series.  These two are self portraits but I’m very excited about some of the people I have lined up to model for paintings.

Anna Brow Chakra 1, 11x14inches, oil on panel

Anna Throat Chakra1, 11x14inches, oil on panel

A Rare Sighting

Aaron and I took a moment to paint the view in Valley Forge one evening after I finished work. Aaron met me on the hillside by the road and we ate the sandwiches and chips he’d packed for us. He’d been painting for a bit, mentioned that people “seemed interested.” I realized what he meant after I set up and began laying the paint down. Cars were slowing to a near halt as the drivers rubber-necked out their windows to see what we were up to. One car even came to a dead stop in the road and started video taping us. The line of cars behind them honked until the couple pulled off onto the grass. It’s always nice to see so many strangers nearly wreck their vehicles to catch a glimpse of the rarely spotted oil painter. It’s not like we were practicing a mating call or any sort of performance art, but simply appearing outside our natural habitat of the studio seemed to be enough.  I guess we do tend to hermit, so most of our existence is cloaked in a solvent scented mystery. We painted for less than two hours before the sun dropped and  Aa said as he always does when the horns blare, brakes squeal and civilians holler out the car windows, “If you think painting is dead, just come out here and watch the crowds gather. They always will.”