Like looking into a dream, Bayly Lay’s work is as ferociously free as it is tenderly intimate. Her paintings thrum with the history of her homeland, the rocky mountains of the West. She was raised on her family’s fifth generation ranch in the foothills of Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness by her mother, renowned artist Amy Lay, and her herd of semi-wild horses. Harmony between patient roots and the fierce break of a horse let loose grant complex spirit to her style; at once bravehearted and deeply grounded.
Bayly’s work speaks in memory and mirage, immersing the beholder in a sense of surreal familiarity. Inherited with her mother’s bad eyes, she devotes her impressionistic style to her innate love for a good blur.
Bayly paints primarily in oil pigment, but found her beginning in charcoal and poetry, both of which make their way into her paintings to this day. A striking boldness, an unorthodox approach, and a true sense of emotion are all central characteristics of this young artist.