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Phila Inquirer Art Review by Victoria Donahoe
Sunday, March 4, 2007 Art Review
Howard Gallery. Becky Reilly of Jamison and Susan Ketcham of Pipersville, both enamored of traditional tabletop still-life painting, are at Howard.
Reilly, the stronger painter, looks to old masters in her oils, which have their own slow, unhurried grace. My only quibble: There is no hint that these fruits and veggies were painted today instead of in the 17th century.
Ketcham, though earnest, has a more breezy approach and is drawn to making pretty floral pastels, some with period ceramic tableware. The charm of her best work is the picture it gives of a world more pleasant than our own.
Howard Gallery, 77 W Bridge, New Hope to Mar 25, Tue-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-9, Sun noon-5, Free. 215-862-5272
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The Morning Call Art Review 5/3/07
The Morning Call
A generous genre is alive and fairly well in "The Living Still Life," an Ambre Studio exhibition of tabletop universes of fruits and doughnuts, flowers and Chinese food boxes.
Imael Checo is the show's sneaky radical, the one who turns containers of egg foo young and shrimp lo mein into vessels of elegant mystery. In "Take Out," an oil on linen, a Chinese food box is surrounded and enobled, by vaguely metallic, silky shopping bags available in designer stores. Shadow-play lighting and a frayed tablecloth convey a sence of gently disturbing drama.
Becky Reilly is the show's Dutch oil master, the one who elevates cantaloupes, pears, and a pewter tankard with pearly light, ripe tones and a background of shiny, rich chocolate. In a slightly soggy, stormy portrait of chocolate- and vanilla-frosted doughnuts she demonstrates the joshing humor of Claes Oldenburg, sculptor of giant, soft lipstick tube and typewriter eraser. And her ruddy, rough orange slices somehow resemble sculptural nuts or marooned boats.
Lynn Miller is the resident revolutionary, the one who fractures wine decanters into a Rorschach jungle of white-space bottles curtained by slices of olive, tanned gold and watermelon. Her neatest trick is making the watercolor decanters appear to decant liquid color.
The best traditionalists are just as impressive. Priscilla Taylor Rosenberger, a watercolorist of extraordinary delicacy contributes white rice........pastel of lemons in a bowl with egg-like holes is nothing less than a glowing lantern - or a domestic spaceship. Her 22-by-30 inch, frame filled view of a red apple and a green pepper is a sense-filling maze-marriage. The tart fruit, which has a lovely tan splash around the stem hole, seems to make the vegetable pucker up.
A number of bad old habits limit the exhibit to being fairly well rather than well. Pictures are marred by cloudy fruit, harsh reflections, vacous arrangements of objects posed rather than placed. Pleasing surprises - Sharon Jenne's quixotic union of tangerine and lady bug - can't cover for missing examples of still life as a meditation on mortality or a metaphysical adventure. Where's the spirtual decay, the illusory precousness, the threshold between the visible and the invisible?
"The Living Still Life," through June 15, Ambre Studio, 310 W. Broad Street, Bethlehem. Community draw-in with tables of floral and ceramic still lifes, 6-9 pm, May 18,discussion on the still life led by gallery director/designer Evelyn Beckman 6 pm May 18. Hours Wed-Fri 10 am to 5 pm and by appointment. 610-974-8480, www.ambrestudio.com.Art Review 5/3/07
By Geoff Gehman
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Bucks County Herald Sept 6,2007
Becky Reilly'still lifes on view at Michelyn Michelyn Galleries are presenting Becky Reilly as a featured artist for September.
The show opens Saturday, Sept. 8 and continues through Sept. 30. The opening reception is 6 to 9 pm.
Reilly paints still lifes in the traditional style of the old world masters. She always paints from life to see the character, light and shadow of the objects she paints first hand, and she paints in a dark space with a light on her subject.
Victoria Donahue, art critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote that Reilly "looks to old masters in her oils, which have their own slow, unhurried grace. My only quibble:There is no hint that these fruits and vegetables were painted today instead of in the 17th century."
Reilly has degrees from Bloomsburg University in physics and studio art, and has studied locally from artists Corinne Lalin (painterly realism) and Frank Arcuri (realism-old world style).
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The Intelligencer Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008
Exhibit of Becky Reilly's works features "Romance of Still Life" Becky Reilly is exhibiting her work in an exhibit titled :The Romance of the Still Life" throughout the month of September -- with a reception scheduled for 6 to 9 pm today -- at The Chapman Gallery in Doylestown.
A Bucks County artist who also is internationally known for her Old World style still lifes, she has included more casual florals in her new pieces, along with the fruit-based works which she is known to paint.
Most of the flowers in her new works were picked from her yard.
She loves to paint pears for the curviness of the fruit and the human forms it seems to represent -- and fans of her pears will not be disappointed. She paints still lifes in oil on canvas or linen and is said to have a flowing grace to her work.
Reilly has been an exhibiting gallery artist for 10 years, after leaving her engineering career to raise her family and pursue art. She has won numerous awards in juried events, including best of show. Requests for hr work over the past two years have exceeded what she can produce.
She credits her style and art transformation to her inspiring teachers: Corinne Lalin, Frank Arcuri and Coulter Watt.
Reilly has degrees in studio art, as well as in physics, from Bloomsburg University.
The Chapman Gallery is at 46 E. State St.
Information: 215-348-2011; www.thechapmangallery.com.
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Nouveau Delaware Valley - Sept 2008 pgs 23-24
Still Lifes by Becky Reilly Highlighted at The Chapman Gallery
The recent works of Bucks County artist Becky Reilly are on view at The Chapman Gallery in an exhibit titled The Romance of the Still Life. The exhibit opens with a reception on Saturday, September 6, from 6-9 pm, and continues through September 30.
The exhibit features a new body of the artist's work, including her well-known still lifes and new floral pieces. Reilly paints her still lifes in oil on canvas and favors the curviness and human-like form of pears.
Reilly, who is internationally renowned for her Old World-style still lifes, left an engineering career to raise a family and pursue art. She has been an exhibiting gallery artist for ten years and has won numerous awardes in juried shows, including best of show.
Reilly earned bachelor of science degrees in studio art and physics from Bloomsburg University. She has also studied art with Corinne Lalin, Frank Arcuri and Coulter Watt.
The Chapman Gallery of Fine Art is located at 46 E State Street, Doylestown, PA. Gallery hrs: Tues-Thurs 10 am-5 pm; Fri & Sat 10 am-7 pm; Sun noon-5 pm. Call 215-348-2011 or visit thechapmangallery.com.
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