Riverviews Artspace welcomes Gulay Berryman for a pop-up exhibition beginning First Friday October 1st, 2021. Classically trained in France and Italy, Berryman is an oil painter from Williamsburg and operator of the Williamsburg Art Gallery online. Her work will be on display through April 17th in the G3 on the Ground Floor.
All of Riverviews Artspace’s exhibition are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 12pm to 5pm.
About the Artist:
Gulay Berryman received her art training at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Versailles, France, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, Italy and the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, France.
She has exhibited in France, Iceland, Senegal, Mauritius, Italy, Oman, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States. These included exhibitions at the American Cultural Center in Reykjavik; as the official U.S. Participant to the 1992 Int’l Exhibition for Human Rights, Goree Island, Senegal; and at the Salon des Independents, Paris.
Gulay was commissioned to do several portrait paintings by a member of the Royal Family of the Sultanate of Oman in the late 1990’s.
She twice won the American Embassy Paris Art Show (2001-02). In 2005, she was invited to participate in the prestigious biennial in Florence, Italy which gathers between 800-900 artists selected from around the world.
Gulay was a finalist in the SEETAL 2006 Art Competition by Kunst-Forum-Int’l in Switzerland. Her paintings were chosen in 2008 and 2009 for the poster of Williamsburg’s ‘An Occasion for the Arts.’ Gulay participated in the U.S. Biennial Artist’s Exhibition at the Broadway Gallery, New York in 2010. Her artwork was featured in the 2011 and 2013 editions of “International Contemporary Artists.”
She served as a judge for both ‘Art on the Square’ and ‘An Occasion for the Arts’ in 2013 and as a juror in 2014 for ‘Art at the River’ in Yorktown.
From 2015-18, Gulay was the owner/director of the Williamsburg Art Gallery located on Merchants Square in historic downtown Williamsburg. In 2017, this gallery was nominated Best in Virginia and one of the 25 Best Art Galleries & Museums in America by American Art Awards. She continues to operate Williamsburg Art Gallery as an online gallery.
In 2017, she was juried into the Art Renewal Center (ARC) as a Living Artist ©. In 2019, Gulay was a Finalist in the landscape category of the ARC 14 th International Salon Competition. That same year, she was juried into both the Salmagundi Club of New York and the Arts Club of Washington as a non-resident artist and is also an Associate Member of Oil Painters of America (OPA).
Visit her website: www.gulayberryman.com
EXHIBITION CATALOG
IF INTERESTED IN PURCHASING ANY OF THE PIECES IN THIS EXHIBIT, CONTACT MICHELE BOLEN (GALLERY ASSOCIATE) AT MICHELE@RIVERVIEWS.NET
Background Information on Artwork
1. PEYTON RANDOLPH HOUSE - Peyton Randolph House, located on Nicholson Street, is one of the most historic and beautiful of Colonial Wiliamsburg’s 18th century homes. Peyton Randolph (1721-1773), a cousin of Thomas Jefferson, was Speaker of the House of Burgesses for nine years, President of the First and Second Continental Congresses, and lived in this house from 1745 until he died in 1773. Other historic figures who took shelter here included General Rochambeau and the Marquis de Lafayette. Randolph brought his wife, Betty Harrison Randolph, to the house around 1751. It became a hub of political activity when Randolph was elected the Presiding Officer of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774. After her husband's death, widow Betty Randolph opened her home to French General Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, and General George Washington in their preparations for the siege of Yorktown in 1781. The house served as the French headquarters until they moved to the field. Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia is named after John Randolph (1773-1833) of Roanoke, Virginia, a planter who served in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate and who was a first-cousin once removed of Peyton Randolph.
2. MERCHANTS SQUARE IN THE LATE AFTERNOON - Merchants Square is one of my favorite places in Colonial Williamsburg, an iconic location which has come to symbolize so much about our community. I love watching people and this is the best place in town to do this as you have such an amazing variety of individuals: visiting tourists, students from nearby William & Mary, local residents walking their dogs, businessmen, and shopkeepers in Colonial-era costumes. This is where they are all brought together for different reasons. I chose to do a painting depicting the square in the late afternoon as this is also my favorite time of day here. The sunlight is very special, the air begins to turn cool, people rest on benches after a full day of sightseeing or shopping and they pause to decide what to do next; maybe have drinks or dinner at the Fat Canary or Trellis (now La Piazza), perhaps followed by a performance at the Kimball Theatre. The time before the sun goes down can be a very magical moment.
3. THE WHIRLING DERVISHES - Tourists are attracted to the Anatolian city of Konya to see the Mevlana Dervishes perform their whirling dance in a trance-like state for hours on end. The principles of Mevlana can best be summarized as follows: In generosity and helping others, be like a river – In compassion and grace, be like the sun – In concealing others’ faults, be like the night – In anger and fury, be like the dead – In modesty and humility, be like the earth – In tolerance, be like a sea – Either exist as you are or be as you look.
4. MOONLIT REVERIE - This was initially one of a pair of paintings (the other one entitled ‘Innocence’) which symbolized the spiritual tranquility or goodness which only a young child who has not yet seen or experienced much of the world might still possess.
5. THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Like many large architectural monuments or structures, the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. is imposing in size and it makes the viewer begin to feel small or insignificant as they draw closer. I wanted to emphasize this feeling by selecting a viewing angle which makes the already oversized dome of the building even more prominent and the person should be looking up at the building. The shrubbery on the embankment in the foreground is designed to add to the feeling of height and the trees off to the right, a bit like a stage curtain which has suddenly been drawn to one side. A challenge for any artist when working on a complex architectural subject is to carefully plan the amount of detail required for the overall size of the painting in order to achieve the right effect in the end. This was perhaps the aspect on which I had to work the most until I was satisfied. Too much detail and it begins to impact the overall color or brightness of the building. I found myself initially going down this path and re-worked my approach until the white marble surfaces began to re-acquire their brightness as if they had undergone a ‘power-wash’ of sorts. I also purposely opted for a clear blue sky above as it is already an architecturally busy composition from which I did not want to distract but instead, to give even the sky unlimited height above this large edifice. No matter how often a Washington, D.C. resident walks past the Capitol, I cannot help but think there has to each time be a renewed sensation of the building’s enormity and complexity when they glance upward.
6. VIEW ACROSS LAKE ORTA TO ISOLA SAN GIULIO - Lake Orta is the Western-most of Northern Italy’s breathtakingly beautiful lakes. Just South of the town of Varese, it is much smaller and less known to travelers than Lake Maggiore, Lake Como, or Lake Garda. In the midst of its sparkling deep blue waters lies the island of San Giulio upon which a Basilica was built beginning in the 9th century by the Bishop of Novara. It is famous for its black marble pulpit and the frescoes painted in the 15th century. Only an hour’s drive from the hustle and bustle of Milan’s noisy streets, a weekend outing to view the tranquility of Lake Orta from the shoreside village of Orta San Giulio is a favorite escape for weary Italian city-dwellers.
7. STILL LIFE WITH SUNFLOWERS - Vincent van Gogh, perhaps more than any other artist, made sunflowers famous. In any still life arrangement, they always command attention because of their imposing size and bright yellow color.
8. LATE SPRING - This scene is set just outside Brandon, Vermont. I spotted this beautiful scenery off Route 7. We just had to stop...:)) In front of me was this absolutely idyllic panorama looking across a pond with lots of water lilies up toward the Green Mountains!. This painting is displayed in an antique custom-made, interior carved and painted Italian wood frame from Milan, Italy. (*This painting was selected for inclusion in the 2000 Art Review book of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, Italy)
9. MOUNTAIN RANGE (Gullfoss, Iceland) - This region, only about a half hour East of the capital city of Reykjavik is famous for its geothermal springs. The country’s most famous waterfall, called Gullfoss, is here along with a geyser which erupts into the air much like ‘Old Faithful’ in Yellowstone Park in the U.S. Reykjavik receives its water supply from this region and the water comes to the city through pipes under high pressure and boiling hot. As a result, the city never runs out of hot water but rather, must take steps to produce cold water and try to remove its slight sulfuric smell. Due to the high level of geothermal activity, the mountains in this region always appear to be surrounded by constantly shifting mist or steam – a state of semi-permanent fog when viewed up close.
10. ART DECO ARCHWAY, PARIS - This was the entrance to a large luxury residential building located at 15 rue Raynouard in Paris’ fashionable 16th Arrondissement. Tour buses would sometimes slow down in front to give visitors a glimpse of what a perfect ‘art deco’ archway entrance should look like! Beyond the archway and the gardens, the residents had superb views looking at the Eiffel Tower and Quai Grenelle across the River Seine with the Passy metro station and Bir Hacheim bridge just below.
11. CAPPADOCIA – Cappadocia, located in the central Anatolian plain of modern-day Turkey, is famous for its ‘fairy chimney rock’ landscape. The Cappadocians were early Christians who lived in carved dwellings beneath the rocks in the 6th and 5th Centuries BC. Today, it is a tourist destination known for its five-star luxury hotels carved into the rock, for trekking, cycling and hot-air balloon rides.
12. CHRISTMAS TREE (With 18th Century Williamsburg Ornaments) - This painting was a commission for the U.S. Ambassador to Iceland and his wife depicting their Christmas tree in 1987, It was adorned with beautiful 18th Century ornaments from Williamsburg, Virginia The image was reproduced and it became their official Christmas card. It received some very complimentary remarks from President Ronald Reagan who had visited Reykjavik, Iceland earlier that year for his historic summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
13. MAGIC FLUTE FANTASY - This painting was commissioned for Opera in Williamsburg (OIW) and the artwork was used to illustrate the poster announcing OIW’s May 2019 production of the famous Mozart opera which took place at the Kimball Theatre, Williamsburg, Virginia.
14. ALONG THE THAMES AT NIGHT - Our daughter Ajda had been born in London almost thirty years earlier but back then, there was very little time for me to paint between looking after an infant child and keeping up with a fairly busy social calendar due to my husband’s work. Now, we were back in London together to attend the wedding of one of Ajda’s high-school friends. This friend had met his future wife while both were attending the same university in England. The bride, it turned out, was the daughter of friends I had known in Turkey and I had seen her when she was just a little girl! What a small world of amazing coincidences…This painting came about as a result of a long walk with Ajda during the London trip. The views of the Houses of Parliament and of Big Ben inspired me to do this painting. I took a few artistic liberties, in particular with ‘cleaning up’ some of the more nsightly barges or work boats tied up across the way by removing them from the scene. This painting was for me a way of capturing a memory of London, birthplace of my daughter, which had escaped me the first time when we lived in that lovely city.
15. THE ‘HERO’ RETURNS ON A MOONLIT NIGHT - The ‘Hero’ was Admiral Suffren’s Flagship, a 74-gun Third Rate ship of the line. In this painting, the ‘Hero’ is shown approaching the Northern coast of Ile de France which is visible on the horizon. The small Gibraltar- shaped island on the left is Gunner’s Quoin (or ‘Coin de Mire’ in French), one of several small islands off the Northern tip of Ile de France.
In 1781, Admiral Pierre Andre de Suffren led a squadron of French navy ships to challenge British supremacy in the Indian Ocean. En-route, he attacked a British convoy in Porto Praya, Cape Verde Islands on April 16, which upset British plans to seize control of the Cape of Good Hope. The island of Ile de France (present-day Mauritius) was a French possession in the Indian Ocean and became Suffren's main base of operations. In 1782-83, Suffren fought five inconclusive actions off the coasts of India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) against the British Royal Navy squadron commanded by Admiral Sir Edward Hughes (1720-94.
These battles took place off Sadras (Feb 17), Providien (Apr 12), Negapatam (Jul 6), Trincomalee (Sep 3) and Cuddalore (Apr 20, 1783). Suffren was a brilliant naval tactician and usually 'gave better than he got' but he was unable to score a decisive victory, largely because he was ineffective in communicating with his more cautious ship captains during the heat of battle. The signature of a peace treaty between Great Britain and France in 1783 brought the war to an end. The ‘Hero’ was Admiral Suffren’s Flagship, a 74-gun Third Rate ship of the line. In this painting, the ‘Hero’ is shown approaching the Northern coast of Ile de France which is visible on the horizon. The small Gibraltar- shaped island on the left is Gunner’s Quoin (or ‘Coin de Mire’ in French), one of several small islands off the Northern tip of Ile de France.
16. BAL MUSETTE A MONTMARTRE (A MONTMARTRE BALL) – During the 19th Century, Frenchmen from the central province of Auvergne became the principal proprietors of the cafes and brasseries of Paris which remains the case to this day. They concentrated on the 5th (Latin Quarter), 12th, 18th and 19th Arrondissements of Paris – the latter two districts forming the hill of Montmartre. They brought with them a music and dance from Auvergne known as “la bouree” which was accompanied by music from the “cornemuse” - a variation of the bagpipe. The term “musette” thus came from the “cornemuse.” These musicians were joined by accordion players who originally came from Italy. The musette dances which evolved were based primarily on the tango, waltz or pasodoble. Going to a bal musette became a very popular form of social entertainment and these were attended by the literary and artistic avant-garde of France and immortalized in the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec and Manet among others. Although the music later evolved to include jazz and blues, going to a bal musette remained a hub of popular entertainment until the very end of both World Wars well into the mid-20th Century. During his 1922-1923 residence in Paris, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley lived just above a “bal musette” at 74 rue du Cardinal Lemoine (not far from the Place de la Contrescarpe). It was called the “Bal au Printemps”’ and Hemingway makes reference to it in his book ‘A Moveable Feast’ and it was also the inspiration for one of the scenes he describes in ‘The Sun Also Rises.’
17. THE GARDEN OF MADAME CRESPIN, GOREE ISLAND, SENEGAL – Marie-Jose Crespin came from a prominent French-African family of judges and lawyers so not unsurprisingly, she herself rose to become a Constitutional judge on the Supreme Court of Senegal. Her other great passion was art. In her lovely home on Goree Island, just off the coast from the capital city of Dakar, she made bracelets from materials found throughout the world, collected old prints and played a very active role in local arts and cultural circles.