Mermaids, Creatures and Love Hearts: Local Artist Isabelle Bryer Talks About Her Work

Isabelle Bryer's art is bold, arresting, and filled with recurring motives and figures. Cats, birds, and fish all creep, fly and skulk around Bryer's work, sometimes benignly, at other times in a manner reminicent of early Netherlandish painters like Bruegel the Elder or Hieronymous Bosch.

Her paintings are also in the mode of surrealists like Frieda Kahlo, although Bryer's style is, ultimately, unique. Looking at it online doesn't really do it justice; it's better to view by appointment at her Encino studio. It's also currently on display (and available for purchase) at two Santa Monica spots, Elite Movement and the Ten Women art gallery.

Encino Patch caught up with the artist for a quick Q&A, and asked her about her art and life in the neighborhood.

When did you start your career in art?
I had a formal art education in Lyon, France and then went to a Fashion Design school. I worked as a Fashion consultant in New York and then moved to L.A.

I started painting about 18 years ago when we moved to our Encino house. I had just quit my work as a fashion designer to be able to raise my daughter. I painted her portrait, which lead me to get commissioned for other children’s portraits. I kept on experimenting from there.

Where do you find your inspiration?
I have always loved art and art history so a lot of my inspiration comes from many artists through the ages, from the medieval times to contemporary artists. The internet provides a massive library of brilliant art in which I get lost all the time and I also have a good collection of art books.

I am also very much inspired by children’s book’s illustrations, I love story telling through images. I think that in order to create we absorb what we see, let it fuel our imagination and then make our own images. Nothing is entirely new but old creative ideas are re-filtered through our minds and given a new life. And of course I am hoping my work will inspire someone else.

There is an exhibition at LACMA at the moment featuring surrealist female painters like Frida Kahlo and Dorothea Tanning. Have you seen it? Are these painters an inspiration to you?

I didn’t get a chance to see it yet but I am very impatient to go. Surrealism has had a big influence on my work and Frida Kahlo is a favorite of mine. I like her naive and descriptive style, her message, and how painting was cathartic for her and helped her endure her difficult physical condition.

Surrealist art has a dreamlike and spiritual dimension that I like to represent in my work, it allows me the freedom to create a world where anything is possible.

How would you describe your Encino studio's aethetic?

My studio is inside my house in a large room originally meant to be a living room. My art and I took over the whole space as soon as we moved in. It has the best morning light. It is lucky that I am a fairly “clean painter” (I paint in acrylics) since this is the first room people see when they enter the house. This is a big incentive for me to keep it tidy!

Do your Encino friends and neighbors drop by to look at your art?
My friends stop by on a regular basis, my kid’s friends drop by too and I also teach painting classes in my studio. I am never able to contain my art classes to a strict schedule and we usually end up not only painting but having tea and cake. Nothing is as good as French pastries to nurture your creative self!

For more of Isabelle Bryer's art, visit her art blog or Facebook fan page. To schedule an appointment to see her work, email her at isabellebryerpaintings@gmail.com.