Harry Ally

Harry & I have always been fascinated with living areas & studios of other artists. There is something so inspiring about seeing an artist in the place where he daily battles with the muses. So we dedicate this portion of Harry's site to all the artists who have so graciously opened up their inner sanctums for us. It is our turn. Enjoy. Your turn next!

Photographer Ron Hart in Harry's Studio

Studio 501 in Ohio

2009 07 14 two paintings on the wall...

Georgia Studio Shots

BOOK

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:51:54 -0400

Harry's book is now available for purchase!

$19.00 includes media mail shipping. Please allow 2 weeks to arrive.

The book is 24 color pages, soft cover bound, in
6 x 8" format. It is mostly images of his work with some nice juicy close-up shots.

If you live outside USA please email me for additional shipping fees. s@suzanneally.com

cover

contents

sample 2 page spread

VIDEO

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:26:58 -0400

Videos featuring Harry Ally

The first video is a video montage of interviews which film maker Mark George conducted & filmed over several months. The resulting film lasts only 7.5 minutes but gives deep glimpses into the mind of the artist Harry Ally.

The second short video was informally filmed one day when Harry was discussing the Jim Dine film about his German drawing Exhibition.

The third video was filmed during a painting demo at Alabama Art Colony. Subscribe in the Google Group form on the left to receive an email when more videos are posted.

Pieces of Harry

Discussion of Jim Dine

Alabama Art Colony Last Video

QUOTES

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:35:52 -0400

some quotes from artists and writers

DRAWING

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:50:33 -0400

Large Slide Viewer

Figure Study #1 . 30 x 22" . conte on paper . 2001

Figure Study #2 . 30 x 22" . conte on paper . 2001

Figure Study #3 . 30 x 22" . conte on paper . 2001

Figure Study #4 . 2009

Self Portrait with Horns . 30 x 22" . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on paper . 2008

Harry . 28 x 22" . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on paper . 2007

Standing Man with Breasts . 30 x 22" . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on paper . 2007

Figure #79 . 60 x 36" . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on paper . 2008

Figure Drawing #3 . 30 x 22" . charcoal on paper . 2007

Dymphna . 51 x 31" . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on linoleum . 2007

Figure #38 . 30 x 22" . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on paper . 2007

Adrienne . 30 x 22" . charcoal on paper . 2007

Figure #65 . 45 x 28" . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on linoleum . 2007

Exotic Kimesha . 30 x 22" . charcoal, acrylic, pastel, tape on paper . 2007

Girl with Blue Breast . 30 x 22" . charcoal, conte on paper . 2007

Figure #63 . 30 x 22" . charcoal, conte on paper . 2007

Figure #60 . 30 x 22" . charcoal, conte on paper . 2007

Figure #59 . 30 x 22" . charcoal, conte on paper . 2007

Dorothy with Leopard Hat . 30 x 22" . charcoal on paper . 2008

Nuit #2 . 60x38 . charcoal, pastel, acrylic on paper . 2009

STATEMENTS

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:49:47 -0400

Artist's Statement

My work follows in the figurative tradition; it follows in mans search for meaning and identity. Painting is the primal impulse to mark. It’s a visual record of the mind, the body, and the human spirit. For me there’s an urgency to both create and destroy. Maybe it’s out of sheer frustration that I work. Maybe it’s just to satisfy a need to violate or to contradict. I’m not sure. There is a strong feeling though and I feel compelled to communicate this feeling.

Concerning content and meaning in my art, I’m never quite sure. The work seems to be layered with different meanings. It primarily deals with vulnerability, fragility, and submission. It conjures up past images and emotions... feelings about the church, about nuns, relationships with my mother, with my wife, and other persons both male and female that all seem to play a part of each painting. And then there’s the surface, the physical quality of the work that eludes to decay, to violation, and to vulnerability. The surfaces of the paintings are like excavations, surfaces layered with a variety of materials... dry pigments, acrylics, tar, fabrics, oils, bonding agents, along with different clays dug from the Georgia soil. From these materials figurative images are unearthed. Their surfaces reveal the painting's history, its process, and provide actual depth, both physically through build up and layering as well as emotional depth with destructive scarring. The works are an existential search for an abstract presence, an intuitive search into the unknown, a search for truth revealed through distortion and through exaggeration. I feel connected to the past, to a timeless tradition in art that has always been a primary concern of man...the expression of existence. It’s innate. It’s primal. It’s been there since the beginning and I too have become part of this search for meaning and identity through the creative process of art making.

BIO

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:49:37 -0400

Figurative painter Harry Paul Ally gives form to mankind's innate and primal impulse to create, to record its existence, as part of the timeless search for meaning and identity: "Painting is the primal impulse to mark. It's a visual record of the mind, the body, and the human spirit. The works are an existential search for an abstract presence, an intuitive search into the unknown, a search for truth revealed through distortion and through exaggeration," Ally explains.

Harry Paul Ally utilizes a wide variety of materials - dry pigments, acrylics, tar, fabrics, oils, bonding agents, and different clays dug from the Georgia soil - "From these materials the figurative images are unearthed," Ally states. "There is a markedly primitive feel to Harry Paul Ally's work. Even with his raw figures, each canvas seems like a realistic moment in nature," comments Bill Lowe.

Harry Paul Ally is recognized as one of the South's finest painters. He has been a professor of drawing and painting at Valdosta State University in Georgia for more than 20 years. Harry Paul Ally has exhibited extensively in individual, group, and juried exhibitions since the 1970's and has won numerous awards for his paintings across the nation.

CONTACT

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:07:34 -0400

This form will send a private email to Harry & Suzy. You may also leave a public comment/discussion on the "guestbook" page.

PAINTINGS

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:05:55 -0400