Bakersfield.com: Kern County news, events, classifieds, shopping, & search

The talented Mr. Ryan: Artist/teacher leaves imprint on students

BY CAMILLE GAVIN, Contributing columnist | Wednesday, Feb 03 2010 04:53 PM

Last Updated Wednesday, Feb 03 2010 04:53 PM

Whether he's painting a canvas, acting on stage, or talking to you face to face, Bill Ryan has a reputation for coming on strong. He's been described as energetic, explosive and eclectic. And those qualities come through loud and clear in paintings.

At age 82, however, he seems to have mellowed a little, possibly because of recent events in his life. Ryan looks healthy enough now but a year ago he spent months in the hospital battling peritonitis and other complications following abdominal surgery.

Now he's serving as the linchpin in an exhibit at Juliana's that includes his own work along with three artists he's mentored during his 60-year career.

Two of them -- Mike Barker and Patti Doolittle -- were once his students at North High School. The third is his son, Dan Ryan, who grew up surrounded by the smell of paint.

Each has developed his or her own distinctive style and that's exactly what Bill Ryan hoped they would do.

"I emphasize individuality," he said. "I teach them the basics and then tell them, 'Find your own road.'"

As for his own style, most refer to it as eclectic. Judging from what I've seen of his work over the years, I'd say it ranges between cubism and abstract expressionism. It's also spontaneous, which is evident when he talks about "Black Cherries," one of the oil paintings in the current show.

"I started with the paint real juicy and just let it come on down," he said, indicating the vibrant streaks of blue and magenta that form the matrix. "Then it began to evolve. See the cherries? What I'm trying to do here is insert some pop art."

Another oil, titled "McGee Creek," reflects his leisure time interests, and anyone who has ever spent time on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada will recognize the towering Whitney Portals that rise in the background.

Since each of his fellow artists in the current exhibit considers Ryan a mentor, I asked them about how he has influenced their own work.

Mike Barker

"I was not very accomplished with drawing, so Bill pushed me into more abstract expressionism," Barker said, recalling his student days at North High in the late 1960s.

Since then he has developed a recognizable style that is distinctive for its texture and its glossy finish. Barker achieves this by painting a mixture of spray enamel and epoxy on 4-by-8-foot Masonite board.

"It's kind of like a battleground," he said. "I drop into it and paint my way out."

Much of his work, including several in the show at Juliana's, is three-dimensional and has a sculptural quality to it.

"Most of my painting is touchable and I encourage people to do that," he said, pointing out the three-dimensional objects in his "Blue Ovals." Smiling, he added, "I'm artist-in-residence for the Arts Council and when I talk to kids I tell them, it's OK to touch Mr. Mike's stuff but don't ever touch anybody else's."

Barker was a welder for many years but he now devotes himself to painting, which he does at home in his garage. According to his count, he has sold 100 paintings in the last three years, most of them in the four-figure range.

He and Ryan have become close friends, and often go camping and fishing together. With a catch in his voice, the artist recalled the seriousness of Ryan's recent illness and his remarkable recovery.

"I was with him in the hospital every day for three-and-a-half months," Barker said. "If he hadn't had such a constitution he might not have made it. He's a hardy soul."

Patti Doolittle

Like Barker, Patti Doolittle first got to know Ryan as a student at North High. She is well-known for her realistic portraits and use of color. Her usual subjects are people, and those kinds of paintings are in the current show. But she's exhibiting a very nice painting of her pet cat as well.

More than anything else, Doolittle says now, her former teacher gave her the confidence to strike out on her own path.

Born in Oklahoma in 1942, she was only 2 when her family moved here and settled in Oildale. Her mother worked in the fields picking cotton and cutting okra. Her father worked periodically in the oil fields as a roustabout.

"I remember my mother weighing the cotton," the artist said. "My sister and I would ride on her cotton sack when she towed it to the scales; it was fun."

In high school, she enrolled in Ryan's art class and that opened up a whole new world for her.

"I didn't get a lot of support from my parents but I did get it from him," she said. "He was very encouraging and I learned a lot about color."

Recalling that she was very shy at the time, the soft-spoken Doolittle said she found Ryan a little intimidating. Although she respected him, that feeling lasted for a good many years after she graduated.

"I feel very honored to be in his company and to be in a show with Mr. Ryan," she said, explaining that long after she graduated from high school she still felt the need to call him "mister." Only recently has she begun to feel comfortable calling him Bill.

Dan Ryan

Dan Ryan, who's had a long career as professional actor and director, claims he first started painting when he was a toddler.

"That is I did if you mean sitting on top of my dad's palette and putting my fingers in the paint," he said. "I liked the taste of it."

A graduate of Foothill, he graduated from Fresno State in 1980 with a degree in theater arts. He spent the next 20 years or so working in theater, here and in Los Angeles, and also in film. At one time he roomed with fellow Fresno State graduate Robert Beltran, another Bakersfield native, who most recently had a starring role in "Star Trek Voyager."

Ryan turned away from Hollywood in 1998 and since has been a partner in a production company based in Bakersfield.

Recalling his decision to depart and return home, he said, "I had turned down a role in 'Thelma & Louise' -- if you can believe that -- for a part in a very bad "B" film that Tony Curtis was doing so he could pay his taxes.

"I was going through a bad patch at the time," he continued, "and then my car blew up on the freeway and that was it. I threw up my hands and haven't done any acting since."

He does, however, maintain his membership in Actors Equity and the Screen Actors Guild. But the only performing he does these days is a Saturday-morning radio show on travel that he co-hosts with his wife, Sara Reshaw, who works for Uniglobe Golden Empire Travel.

This is the first time the artist has exhibited in public. He jokingly refers to himself as a "closet painter."

"Even when I was doing theater," he explained, "I was always doing design and engineering and painting."

Ryan, an admirer of Matisse, refers to his own work as fractile geometry. He works in acrylics and has several large pieces in this show. One of these, titled "La Femme," is done in pale, creamy colors and is notable for both its delicacy and its sensuality.

To say that Dan is a fan of his father's is an understatement.

"My dad," he says, "is a genius at some level. And he's damn good at everything he does."