Local Artist Shows Wine-Inspired Paintings at the JCC

In his work as a body building and fitness illustrator for magazines, South Orange resident and wine enthusiast Lyman Dally was sometimes doing three to five pieces for 15 to 20 days straight. It was only when the publishing industry began to shrink and work started to dry up two years ago that he turned to oil painting. In a sense, the loss of steady work has set him free artistically.

"It's an artist's dream, but it's also a golden cage," said Dally, who's currently showing his wine-inspired paintings at the Cooperman JCC in West Orange in a solo show that remains open through Jan. 3. He won the show after placing first in oils/acrylics in the gallery's 10th annual juried art show for his painting "Red Overhead," which depicts a glass of red wine soaring in a cloudy evening sky.

Dally's paintings range from comedic—such as one portraying a group of "troubled but inebriated" guests at a wine tasting event, watching a glass about to tip over—to macabre. Skeletons are depicted in a few of the paintings, including an image of one pouring a thick glass of wine that resembles blood. To Dally, they represent "separation anxiety"—from the major client he had as an editorial illustrator but also from wine itself and being in a financial position to collect it at the clip he once did, which had become a secondary source of self expression.

"There is a dark side to wine; there's a dark side to drinking," said Dally, who paints in a style inspired by chiaroscuro, with high contrast between darks and lights.

It was his wife, Brenda Schwartz, who inspired him to take up painting seriously, encouraging him to take a class at the School of Visual Arts in New York to refine his technique with oils. Having "squirreled away enough dough to live off of for a couple of years," which he recommends that any artist do when times are flush, Dally's now wading into uncharted waters.

He gravitated toward painting wine because he feels that specializing in a subject is an artist's best chance to make a living, but also ultimately because its been his passion since he first started collecting in 1991.

"I guess I'm trying to capture the imagination of wine geeks everywhere," he said.