Cold Mountain in Late Autumn. Raymond Byram, artist
For the Artist Focus Series in November, Kiitos Fine Art presents the work of Raymond Byram with a full studio exhibition Wednesday, November 11, through Sunday, November 15. Two artist talks are scheduled for the Series during which Byram will discuss and answer questions about the intricate process of serigraphy. The first happens on November 11, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., followed by music by violinist Sandy Herrault; and the second talk will be held on Saturday, November 14, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. with music afterwards by the Kass Blount Jazz Guitarist Duo.
Across his 50-year career, Byram has explored a range of genres and mediums including abstract, surrealism, neo-realism, oils, watercolors, etchings and woodcuts. He is a master of serigraphy, a process involving silkscreen printmaking. “This is a very tedious process and there are very few artists working in this medium today,” says Byram who has been creating large serigraphs since 1987. Rather than creating a design directly on a screen as common in serigraphy, he creates an original oil painting, then separates the colors of the image by hand using sheets of acetate. With a red opaque pen, he reproduces every detail of the selected color before transferring the image to the screen. The painstaking process involves doing 17 to 22 separate screens by hand.
Byram will introduce the process to gallery visitors during the Artist Focus Series talks. “I will have my oils as well as a number of serigraphs,” he says. “I will bring a pictorial display of the different stages of the silkscreening process and a set of separations; that will be an eye opener! And I will have some palette knives for people to see as well.”
Earlier this year, Byram’s work was exhibited at The William King Museum in Abingdon, VA. His oil paintings, primarily landscapes, are created almost exclusively with small palette knives. He has received recognition and won awards for the impressionistic realism in his depictions of Western North Carolina.
“Raymond’s paintings of NC landscapes can be truly breathtaking,” says Fred Stack, owner of Kiitos Fine art. “They make you feel like you are walking in the woods or standing on a rock bald looking over our mountains. His use of color and transparency to capture the sunlight filtering through the colorful tree canopy or its reflection off a water stream is masterful.”
Kiitos Fine Art is located at 146 Roberts Street, #104, in Asheville’s River Arts District. Hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. To learn more, visit KiitosFineArt.art.
