Artist Weldon Ryan to speak at the Fall Festival of the Arts on April 28

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

from: Fall Festival of the Arts

Palm Coast artist Weldon Ryan will be a featured speaker in the Black Art, Artists and History Speaker Series at the Museum of Art, in DeLand, on April 28.

A reception will be 5-5:30 p.m. that day, followed by his address. RSVP by calling the museum: 386-734-4371.

Ryan was born in The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, graduating in 1985. He worked in advertising, was an urban park ranger in New York City and later worked for the New York Police Department as a police officer and forensic artist until retirement in 2004.

About his art, Weldon writes: "I consider myself a realist painter painting contemporary images in a post expressionist world of art. I prefer painting large for the freedom and excitement it creates. I do not frame my paintings because they are self-contained within their edges. I prefer gallery wraps or thicker stretchers to encompass my work. I mostly paint figurative and usually feature the West Indian Carnival and scenes which has greater worldwide acceptance.

"My solid color backgrounds are intended to bring the viewer into the celebration of the fete of Carnival. I feel it’s important to crop tighter and not be traditional about my composition. Excluded parts of the anatomy or item provides the viewer to also create in their mind the continuity of the painting expanding the viewer’s imagination at the edges causing involuntary participation by the viewer.

"Carnival is about the celebration and the abandonment of rules, which also work in this regard. I’m also challenged by the human anatomy and the natural world. I must sculpt; in a two-dimensional plane, the illusion of depth using light and color as my chisel applied by my brush."