ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Lynn artist Barry Ridlon, 83, motions toward his work.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN — Barry Ridlon, 83, of Lynn, will have a gallery opening on Saturday, featuring impressionist oil and watercolor paintings that highlight the beauty of landscapes and still life arrangements.
The opening of “Old and New: Barry Ridlon, New England Impression” will be at LynnArts, 25 Exchange St., from 2 to 5 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The shows runs from this week until March 10. Ridlon has been a resident artist of LynnArts from 2003, where he has a studio.
“I hope they (people) come,” Ridlon said. “Well, I have people who have bought paintings from me before who will probably come and it’s an opening. People go to art openings. They like to go to see what’s going on with the art. These are people who are interested in art. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea.”
Ridlon said he went to the School of Practical Arts in Boston in the late 1950’s, right after he got out of the U.S. Marine Corps.
“I went into advertisement,” said Ridlon. “I’ve worked in Boston and I worked in New York, but I knew my heart was always in oil and painting. In the beginning, I worked with watercolor and then I went to oil.”
When he gets tired of using oil, Ridlon said he’ll go to watercolor and he’ll go abstract, usually because he’s getting too tight using the oil. He said he’ll go loosen up with the watercolor paintings. Watercolor is very hard to use, he said, and oil is a forgiving paint. Once you put watercolor down, that’s it, he said.
Even as a kid, Ridlon said he always used to draw. He ended up in advertising working art agencies. He became a full-time painter in 1980 after a heart attack meant he couldn’t continue the work he was used to doing.
“So I started painting again and I’ve been painting ever since,” Ridlon said. “I like to paint outdoors, but I don’t do too much of that now because of my age.”
Ridlon said he paints landscapes and seascapes. He paints anywhere. He has done lots of Lynn paintings but they’ve already sold. He paints anywhere from Lynn to Bar Harbor, Maine. Most of his smaller paintings are done at the scene. He may see a spot and come back, take photographs or sketch it.
He said he’s “nutty over boats,” but he also likes painting the ocean, the shore and the woods. He said landscapes are just something he likes.
“There’s no particular reason.” Ridlon said. It’s something that appeals to me like landscapes and seascapes. They appeal to me and of course, I’ve lived around the sea all my life. When I was a kid, I used to play up in Lynn Woods all the time.”
Ridlon and his wife, Judy, have been married for 48 years. They have four children and two grandchildren.
“I’m happy,” he said. “You want a lot of money in your pocket, you don’t become a painter.”
https://newitemlive.wpengine.com/news/local-tattoo-artists-make-their-mark/
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley
