The Sherman Library is pleased to present a new show “My Favorite Things” by Lorraine Ryan. From historic barns to landscapes and coastal scenes to the intimate details of a flower in her garden to birds and animals, she uses watercolors and acrylic to recreate life and memories.   The paintings will be on display at the Sherman Library from July 31 through September 16, 2020. 

“I love to paint, to create art and I have been an artist all of my life” says Ryan.   It began in kindergarten and through high school to the Parson’s School Of Design where she earned a 3 year Associates degree and then followed by a year of fine art at the Art Students League of New York.  She then developed a career in the 1970’s of decorative product design in home fashion. Ryan was a designing partner in Ryan Associates in Manhattan often consulting with corporate clients, creating design concepts for decorative home products, such as upholstery, bath, wallcoverings, floorcoverings, table linens, and dinnerware fine and casual.

And today, she is still fully engaged in fine art, using acrylics and watercolors. “I just love to paint, almost anything that grabs my fancy—Landscapes, Seascapes, Still Life’s, People, Pets, Farm Animals and Barns” says Ryan.  It seems to be written into her DNA that everywhere she looks in this wonderful part of Connecticut there is something, perhaps someone, that makes her want to capture the light, the look, or the feeling of that particular moment in time. 

Ryan has painted 20 Historic Barns in and around New Milford, Roxbury, New Preston and Sherman. Many have been sold, but there are a few in this show. One is the “Happy Acres Farm” in Sherman. Another is “The Flynn Family Farm” in upper New Milford—now long gone—that she painted from a sketch and photos.

An avid gardener over the past 29 years, she has created and maintained an extensive array of flowers: the perennials that magically appear, and the annuals she indulges in buying and planting each season. Inspired by her garden are: “Irises And Swallowtail”; and “Heirlooms,” And her secret for painting flowers, when she sets up for a still life painting, she does the flower first while they are fresh.

Her love of birds and animals can be seen in her paintings. For instance: “Cow At Rest,” which is from the J&S Farm on Sunny Valley Road in New Milford.  Plus, the drama and color at sunset adds so much to a painting such as in  “Blue Heron At Sunset”.  Her painting: “Two Cats” was inspired by an article and photo about a cat called A Toyger, which compelled me to couple the Toyger with a tiger in a painting.

Her fine art paintings have been juried into competitions and awarded numerous prizes, exhibited in galleries throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New York City.  In addition to her independent work she does commission portraits–painting children, adults, pets, farm animals, and houses.

For more information about the show and the Sherman Library, visit:  www.shermanlibrary.org