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Mary Reilly DFN Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of representational nature drawings by Mary Reilly. Reilly, who had been working primarily as a portrait painter in recent years, has returned to her favorite medium, graphite. Reilly works her drawings in a reductive process, building up to eight layers of graphite to tone the white paper, then pulling out the lights and pushing the darks. This technique creates subtle shifts between light and dark, giving her work a photographic quality. Reilly’s drawings focus on the details of nature that are often beyond one’s passing glance. She works from photographs of dense wooded areas, wild fields, and empty beaches, leaving out any trace of human existence. She is particularly drawn to quiet isolated locations that emphasize the beauty of overlooked spaces, such as Prince Edward Island and Florida’s gulf coast. In “Nature Study,” Reilly captures wild thistles just after bloom, revealing their ephemeral beauty. In “Snowy Woodlands,” masses of slender tree trunks nearly obscure a snow-blanketed forest floor, as ice slowly builds up on the face of a rocky cliff. The evergreen branches of the tops of Reilly’s “Three Trees” reach toward an ominous, cloud-filled sky. And in “Seashells,” shells roll in the surf, slowly decomposing into beach sand. Seasonal transformation, decay, and the transience of the natural world are the essence of Reilly’s vision. Mary Reilly was born in Yorktown, NY, in 1963. She studied at the School of Visual Arts and the Arts Students League; she also attended the National Academy School of Design, where she exhibited in its Annual exhibition (2001). Reilly’s artwork has been featured in American Artist (Spring 2004). |
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