The Downtown Gallery
The Downtown Gallery is an extension of Ryan Eure Designs located in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. We officially opened our (2nd set of) doors to the public in November 2022.
Our goal is to offer an eclectic art gallery featuring my jewelry as well as artwork from local artists for the community to enjoy. The Downtown Gallery exhibits an array of visual arts from photography and oil paintings to bronze statues and carved wood sculptures. The store and gallery combine a passion for fine art and my career as a jewelry designer.
Read on to meet the other artists!
Gulay Berryman received her art training at the Ecole National des Beaux Arts de Versailles, France, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, and the Ecole du Louvre, Paris. She has exhibited in France, Iceland, Senegal, Mauritius, Italy, Oman, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States. In the late 1990’s, Gulay was commissioned to do portrait paintings by a member of the Royal Family of Oman. She twice won the American Embassy Paris Art Show (2001-02) and invited to exhibit at the Biennial of Florence, Italy in 2005. Between 2015-18, Gulay was the owner/director of the Williamsburg Art Gallery in Williamsburg, Virginia which she now runs as an online gallery. Gulay is a juried Living Artist © of the Art Renewal Center, of the Salmagundi Club of New York, the International Guild of Realism, an elected member of the American Artists Professional League and an Associate Member of Oil Painters of America.
Andre Lucero
Andre Lucero is an impressionistic oil painter based near Richmond, VA, Andre trained in a traditional academic setting and has now combined his love for the outdoors with his art. His work includes landscapes, figures and still life all painted from life. Andre reveres Old Masters and their painting techniques. He works to use Renaissance painting materials to produce the medium that gives a distintive luminescent quality. Andre is of Spanish descent but was born in Tehran in 1967. His U.S. Military family returned to the states soon after his birth. After earning a BFA, cum laude, in 1989, Andre worked as a free-lance illustrator. During that time, his illustrations appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Playboy, U.S. News & World Report and The Washington Times. While his illustrations were honored with the 1995 Virginia Press Association Best of Show Award and the 1994 Award of Excellence from the Art Directors' Club of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Andre left illustration to devote his full attention to painting.
Bill Casto
Bill is a former college football coach and athletic director. He creates nationally competitive wood sculptures using found driftwood from local waters. Bill selects weathered and interesting wood, often hundreds of years old to carve interpretive or stylized pieces of art.
Bill has the exceptional talent of seeing what lies hidden in the wood. By using the available lines and planes he painstakingly brings to life his wildlife sculptures. His creativity has been recognized by art professionals for its attention to detail, use of grain patterns and hand-polished glass-like finishes. Every attempt is made to capture the essence of the wildfowl rather than a realistic duplication of the subject. Bill's sculptures emphasize form, content, movement and are totally original and one of a kind.
Wil Swink
Wil Swink was born in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1981. Swink is a self-taught artist who began painting in 2011 while living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In a brash attempt to impress a woman (now his wife), Swink, fictitiously, told her he was an artist and wanted to use her as a muse. This forced him to produce a portrait of her, which then became the catalyst for booking his first public art show. Swink continued to show work in the Boston area and has since shown work in his native Virginia, New York, and New Jersey. After living in the Boston area for over ten years, Swink is now living and working out of Williamsburg, VA. The paintings are typically a result of many layers of paint, maps or blueprints, wood stain, epoxy, etching and wood. These materials serve to provide richness and meaning in the sensory process. Swink’s work is a product of a variety of life experiences and a vehicle for self-expression.Thomas EmaThomas Ema is an Associate Member of the Oil Painters of America who captures dramatic light to make the ordinary look extraordinary. “Having grown up in Williamsburg, Virginia, I have a deep appreciation for history and enduring values.” His passion for painting began while a fine art major at Virginia Tech painting watercolor landscapes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1982, he moved to Denver, CO where he started and managed his own design firm, Ema Design Inc. for over 30 years. In 2016, he moved back to Williamsburg to pursue painting on a full-time basis. Thomas enjoys visiting places first discovered in his childhood and recalls taking art classes at the Twentieth Century Art Gallery before he started first grade.
Jon Bandish
His compositions focus on the light at particular times of the day and how our emotions are affected by the feel of the moment. His pure seascapes represent the mesmeric visual phenomenon of light on moving water and reflect a meditative observational process. His meticulously detailed compositions are carried out using glazing techniques, reminiscent of old master approaches. His intention is to lead the viewer to reflect on the impact Nature has had on lives; our memories and our emotions.
Jon Bandish (b. 1982, Philadelphia PA) is a full time oil painter who lives and works in Dagsboro, Delaware, USA. He graduated with a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in 2006. His work is held within private collections in the USA and in the UK, as well as the Einstein Hospital Collection in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a member of The National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society (NOAPS), The American Society of Marine Artists, and The American Artists Professional League. He is Co-President of The Greater Millsboro Art League and is an accomplished musician.
Dianna Woolley
Dianna Woolley is a long-time abstract artist and has been living in Williamsburg for three years. She has a painting studio and an active practice of painting about 15 hours a week. "My view on Abstract Art is that when purchasing for a home, office, yacht or second home property, a painting memory marks place and time for you. The reality is when you own an original piece of artwork you become a part of history, a part of the painting's life story. In fact, an original painting often becomes a cherished family heirloom, passed generation to generation, thereby creating legacy. In a world where things come and go, often to a landfill, treasured fine artwork can transform and connect one's present, past and future. I believe through the work being in your personal environment you can relish feelings of joy, status, energy and well-being."
Bob Oller
For over 40 years Bob Oller worked as a commercial illustrator and designer.
He jumped into the digital side of imaging & illustration early in the development of that technology. As the fine arts side of him grew, he started pulling tools/ mediums over from his commercial world and began exploring & creating in the Vector Painting Medium.
Each media acrylics, watercolor, pastels, graphite, oils... is a recorder of the artist hand. Each medium and its' personality is between the artist’s hand, creative thought and the canvas. Vector media (Illustration software i.e Illustrator, Corel, Freehand), is a advanced digital medium much different than the digital photo or the photo paint process know and seen by most. Bob doesn't start with a photo, but a blank canvas screen, and vector is so exacting... it take 5-10 times as long to complete a vector painting than most other media. This is about creating great art not doing it faster. But the edge, depth and vibrance in this media is very different. He can create images here he cannot create with any other medium.
The Vector medium is a digital artist's tool process that captures each movement of the artist hand. There is nothing between his hand and the art, not a brush, a piece of graphite, paint or chalk. It’s his hand being digitally captured as he creates a painting. Since this media captures stroke by stroke, there is no place to hide, you get the movement of the artist, and the color they create in each piece.