Opening Reception: Thursday, June 13, 6-8pm

Octavia Art Gallery is pleased to start the summer off with an exhibition of new works by artist Chris Hayman. Sometimes, Blue will be the artist’s first solo exhibition with Octavia Art Gallery.

Chris Hayman concerns herself with space. She is interested in how forms are energized by the space around them, especially when incorporated into paintings with vivid contrasting color and thick painterly textures. Inspired by the natural world, Hayman believes in a process of constant investigation. Trained early on as a classical pianist, Hayman has been greatly influenced by music in her life. Music is a constant in the studio. She most readily identifies with the “Lyrical Abstraction” movement, characterized by the movement of brushstroke and generous applications of paint, creating paintings that moved away from geometric, hard-edge, minimal styles toward a more sensuous fluid abstractions worked in a loose gestural style.

The works in Sometimes, Blue explore the transition of seasons, from late winter through early spring and summer. Living on a farm in northern California, Hayman was inspired by the recent rains that have brought about vibrant green pastures, orchards bursting with flowers and enormous hard wood trees leafing out, providing shade for the summer.

Chris Hayman was born in New York City. She received her BA in Art History at the University of Maryland and a second degree in Art Education at the University of Reno, Nevada where she started her investigation in painting. Hayman has had a continuous exhibition history, showing in galleries throughout the country, most notably in Washington, DC; Boston, MA; New Orleans, LA; Park City, UT; Dallas, TX; and Houston, TX, among others. Her work is included in the numerous private and corporate collections.