Abbey Ryan, assistant professor of art and design, was invited to teach a painting workshop in November at the John F. Peto Studio Museum in Island Heights, N.J. John Frederick Peto (1854-1907), born in Philadelphia, was a late 19th-century figure in the trompe l’oeil school of American still life painting.

The Museum invited Ryan to use Peto’s own still life objects in her still life painting demonstrations during the workshop. Commenting about the experience, Ryan says, “Painting Peto’s copper jug was surreal, and at the same time I felt grounded in his studio space and deeply connected to his artistic energy. It was truly an honor.” Pictured here is Ryan’s painting, Still life with John F. Peto’s Copper Jug, Clementine, and Concord Grapes, which has been acquired by the Museum for their Collection.

Peto painted several paintings of the exact same jug that Ryan also painted. One example here is Peto’s painting Pots and Pans from c. 1880, which was on view in the exhibition, Important Information Inside: The Art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century America, at Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art in 1983.

The Peto Museum sponsored Ryan’s painting workshop in conjunction with their national Trompe L’oeil Exhibition, which included Ryan’s three latest trompe l’oeil paintings. To learn more about the Peto Museum, visit their web site, petomuseum.org, and read about the Museum in the October 2013 issue of Art & Antiques Magazine.

View more photos of Ryan’s painting demo, more of Peto’s paintings, and her workshop.

Visit abbeyryan.com for more information about Ryan’s work.