084 http://www.AmericanArtCollector.com
COLLECTOR'S FOCUS
WOMEN ARTISTSstand the social and political climate in the
places she visits. On her travels she goes
out of her way to meet people, sketching
and journaling extensively, gathering bits of
trash that will later be used for the collage
in her large-scale works. Her most recent
works are portraits after masterworks of
art, such as Salvavidas: Inmate Firefighters
of Malibu (after Delacroix) that is adapted
after Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People.
At George Billis Gallery in New York
City, the watercolor paintings of Elizabeth
O’Reilly are found. In describing her
works, O’Reilly says, “Primarily a pleinair painter, I am attracted to locations
displaying evidence of their history, where
once vigorous places are being reclaimed
by nature. I enjoy the juxtaposition of the
man-made against the natural world for the
color, the geometry and the vestiges of the
human presence.”
Lotton Gallery in Chicago represents
artist Mary Alayne Thomas. Thomas’
paintings are created by painting with
encaustic on panel. Inventively, she uses
the beeswax as a thin layer over watercolor
paint on wood panel creating a unique
ethereal quality.Gallery director Christina Franzoso
says, “Her latest painting, In the Juniper,
features a dark hair woman, smartly
dressed with juniper branches in her
hair, monarch butterflies landing on her
hair, hand and shoulder, and a barred owl
perched on her hand. An intense gaze of
a lovely women in a common theme in
Mary Alayne’s paintings. A small, sweet
piece called Her Outlaw Friend focuses
on a masked woman in a crimson blouse,
with a colorful quail in her hair, posing
the question of ‘who is the outlaw here?’
Beckoning to the art nouveau, her paint-2021 2219