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This is the official website of the British painter Denis Ryan. To view his paintings, please click on the Gallery link above.
Denis was born in London in 1948 and studied for an MA in Fine Art at Watford, Hornsey and Ravensbourne Colleges of Art from 1966-72.
His career began in film animation and, later, illustration. Successfully combining both, he worked on award-winning films such as Watership Down and The Wall, as well as numerous TV and film commercials, and has had commissions for illustrations from most of the leading publishing houses.
Having worked in commercial art since leaving art school he is now concentrating on pursuing his love of fine art, in particular painting with watercolour.
Because he uses photography as an aid to his work the word photo-realist springs to mind. But he likes to use the camera as an extension of himself, to pursue his interest in working with focus and perspective. The shop window in Manhattan, with its numerous reflections, has a kind of complexity that can only arise with the use of a camera. The camera remains a tool of his art; it helps make, but does not actually create, the art itself. The paintings might look photographic but they are pure painting. Denis paints what impresses him, landscape or cityscape.
Denis fills notebooks with ideas on his travels, sketches of things seen, and collects collage materials. He walks around with no preconceptions about what makes a good painting, he's not looking for anything in particular, but seems to be drawn to places and objects that are pretty run down, battered by life. For composition purposes he may move things around and add other images. Travel contributes hugely to his choice of imagery, in somewhere like Mexico or Egypt, the intensity of light, and life, the old cars, the buses - he finds it all very exciting and stimulating.