 Laura Reilly is the creator of this year's Westside Pioneer Territory Days painting. Tara Patty photo
|
“It was great having a gallery in Old Colorado City,” said Reilly, who recalls drawing in the dirt as a small child and has been a professional artist since 1998. “Being a gallery owner allowed me to have daily interaction with a wide variety of people interested in art. Lots of people I met in the gallery had never had an opportunity to see an artist 'at work' - or to meet an artist in person.”
Her works will continue to be offered in various galleries - for example, the original of her painting for this issue will be hanging at the Hunter-Wolff Gallery, 2510 W. Colorado Ave., as of May 23. However, part of the artist will miss having her own venue.
“It's been a very tough decision, to decide to take a break from running the gallery, because I have enjoyed it so much,” Reilly said. “But as an artist, I have other opportunities and challenges I would like to pursue, so I've decided to give myself some time to have a more flexible schedule - and to be out in the world more with my paints!”
Born in 1959 to a military family, Reilly “spent her childhood living and traveling in the American Southwest, England and Europe,” her website biography states. Married in 1981, she and her husband, Jack Reilly, a sculptor, settled in Colorado Springs. “Laura continued to pursue her passion to paint while raising her two young sons, Jesse Arlen and Jack Morgan Reilly, and working full-time first as an accountant, then as a District Court clerk,” the biography continues.
Reilly said she favors the impressionistic style because it seems to provide a greater opportunity to give a painting a “lyrical, poetic quality… The calligraphy of the impressionist brushstrokes can reveal the personality of the artist - I like to see and feel the 'hand' of the artist at work, and to read the 'story' of the paint itself.”
An original, Territory Days-related drawing or painting in the issue before the event has been a tradition with the Westside Pioneer dating back to its first year, 2004.