Though small in size, Eleanor Ray’s works convey vast spaces with beautifully-rendered, airy light quality. Ray studies her settings in person and from memory, in part through her use of photographs and drawings. Spiral Jetty is from a series of paintings depicting the Robert Smithson earthwork from a variety of viewpoints and at different times of day. Like much of her work, the scene possesses a simplified geometry that adds to its meditative sensibility. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions of Ray’s work include the Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Roanoke; Howard’s, Athens; University of Tulsa; and The Landing, Los Angeles. Her work is in the public collections of the Pensacola Museum of Art at the University of West Florida; Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Roanoke; and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
