Linda Ryan lindaryanfineart.com

Ryan uses abstraction to explore motion and energy, and to create a sense of connection with that power. Her media, acrylic, demands that she work quickly during each session, and the effect is usually either flowing or layered and built over time. 

Her abstract figuratives begin often with a photograph or model, but sometimes simply from a mental image.  The photograph is usually discarded early on as the figure takes its own shape and energy.  Ryan's early work as a litigation paralegal often inserts itself with references to striated musculature or the smoothness of tendon or bone.  In her large dancer paintings, approached over a long period of time, the sense of movement is even more strongly defined, with a layered approach that can take a year to create.

Ryan is an award-winning painter whose works are in collections in several states and in Europe.  She began studying painting in 1999 with Bill Paskewitz at Las Positas College in Livermore, and in 2003 was awarded a $10,000 Robert Butler grant to further her work.  She has painted many commissions from 6' wide abstractions of horses running, gel abstractions, dancer paintings and abstract portraits. 

In 2001, Ryan became active as an arts advocate in the Tri-Valley area, working with friends and colleagues to create multiple exhibition opportunities for artists, manage art exhibitions and spaces to exhibit and view art, and work to expand art offerings downtown. Ryan founded and has run ArtWalk since 2002.  She manages the Bothwell Arts Center, runs the visual arts exhibition program at the Bankhead Theater, ran a small part-time gallery called Ryan Fine Art where multiple art exhibitions have been held, and has curated, coordinated, hung and run themed, solo and group exhibitions in the area such as at the Wild Vine, as well as a small exhibition program for emerging artists at Panama Red Coffee Shop.  She is a past Livermore Commissioner for the Arts.