Lynne Riding

Lynne Riding is a visual artist living and working in Charleston, SC.

She received an MFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, a BFA in Fashion and Textiles from Manchester College of Art, UK and a 2 year Art Foundation from Hereford School of Art & Design, UK.

In addition to practicing as a professional artist, she has been an art educator at university level, currently serving as a faculty member at the Art institute of Charleston, SC.

Riding has exhibited extensively throughout the country in states such as SC, CA, FL, NM, AZ, and OK.

Highlights include invitational exhibits such as: “Abstract Art in SC, 1949-2012”, State Museum, Columbia, SC. “30th Parallel- a Convergence of Contemporary Painting”, 2005, JMOMA, Jacksonville, FL, and “CYMK”, 2005, Trans America Pyramid, San Francisco, CA.

A childhood spent in Mid Wales instilled, a love of landscape and certain awe for the power and fluctuations of the elements. As an inveterate traveler of both land and sea, she draws on these experiences in her work. Many of the physical and mental experiences from her past sailing and competitive windsurfing experiences, together with memories of hiking in the hills of home, to current daily walking, find their way into her work.

Initially a representational artist, her work was originally concerned with both the landscape and the figure, the two combining at times. During 2002 Riding’s work took a turn, this due to the wish to instill more inner depth and felt meaning to each piece, and so, her focus turned to abstraction. 

Artist Statement

"Major components in my work are the issues of impermanence, shifting perspectives, and loss, aligned with the dichotomy of enduring hope, that which drives us on.

Although my work is of an abstract nature, it always stems from the place and surroundings in which I find myself, from color observed, a line seen in space, or the found object. My interests lie in the subtle undercurrents, the not so blatant, crude or obvious, in other words, a case of paying attention to what happens between the obvious. My work shifts in scale and medium, sometimes combining media. For example, from observational drawn studies made in the landscape to encaustic pieces, to ink on paper, to large scale, oils on canvas, to 3D pieces. 

I continue to develop a reductive painting process, involving what to bury and what to reveal and consider my art practice to be a constant learning curve if I am open to all and pay attention. I enjoy the experimental aspect and the constant surprises one receives I aim to involve the viewer and hopefully bring them into the piece. I believe that there is a validity and a need for the poetic in today’s world."