Pat Ryll’s latest show dedicated to those who have inspired her

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Many know Pat Ryll through her civic involvement. Currently a member of the Tourism Committee and the steering committee for the Business Improvement District, Ryll also was instrumental in the formation of the Arts and Culture Commission, serving on it for two years, and the establishment of the city Art Walk.

“I find that if you have a community that you feel so involved with, and that feeds you and helps you and enhances your life, it is a required responsibility that you put back, that you give to your community,” she said. “So I always try to be part of the community.”

Benicians who know Pat Ryll know she’s dedicated to the community. They also know she’s an accomplished artist.

This month visitors to the Benicia Plein Air Gallery, where Ryll is the featured artist, can learn more about her work, watercolors varying widely in subject matter — from flowers to landscapes to koi fish.

What the work has in common, Ryll said Wednesday, is that all the pieces have to do with how someone in her life inspired her, taught her and helped her along the path to becoming an artist.

“Everything has to do with a friend of mine, a neighbor, a teacher, someone who introduced me to watercolor,” she said. “All with a little help from my friends.”

Ryll’s journey as an artist began with inspiration — the “House of Inspiration,” in fact, which is what she dubbed a flat she rented on Gull Point when she first moved to Benicia.

Ryll had a friend who was taking art classes at Solano Community College, and “he was eating awful things, like tuna and corn flakes with ketchup on top,” she said. In exchange for cooking meals for him, he shared with her what he’d learned in his art classes.

“I cooked dinner, and he brought pastels, and paint and paper. He introduced me to art.”

She soon found that putting color on paper was what most appealed to her. The drawing part, on the other hand …

“I have to say today that my drawing is not my strong point, because I cannot wait to get the color down. Putting color on paper is what gives me joy.”

Pat Ryll finds joy — and inspiration — in being part of the Plein Air Gallery, too. “There’s much inspiration that is shared when you show with a group of painters, and you have this gallery in common.

“I know when I gallery sit I always bring my paints in, because it’s a very creative place to be. The walls are full of paintings that kind of talk to me, because I know the people that painted them, and possibly where they were at the time, and how they feel about them.

“We learn so much from one another. You can’t buy that kind of inspiration.”

If You Go
A reception for Pat Ryll will take place Saturday during the Art Walk from 5-7 p.m. at the Benicia Plein Air Gallery, 307 First St.