Bayla Arietta
About the Artist
Born and raised in the Hudson Valley, Bayla has been incessantly painting and drawing the people and environments around her since the day she could first hold a crayon. Her work is primarily in watercolors and depicts whimsical narrative renditions of everyday life. Pursuing a career in Illustration, Bayla has studied all over the world including Italy, Mexico, The Camberwell College of Arts – University of Arts London, and has a BFA from The Hartford Art School in Connecticut. She has had extensive experience teaching painting, drawing, printmaking, and bookbinding to all ages and has planned and coordinated shows for youth and young adults with developmental disabilities. Bayla has had her art work displayed in numerous exhibits and galleries across the country, including The Missoula Art Museum, The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy NY, The National Heirloom Exposition in California, and the Philadelphia Flower Show. Bayla’s work has been featured on album covers, product packaging, logo design, and films such as Allen Coulter’s ‘Remember Me’. Bayla currently lives and works in Missoula Montana.
Artist Statement
Working primarily in watercolors on hot press paper, Bayla draws and paints her subjects out of reality and into ethereal new interpretations of our surrounding world. Each painting is a cumulative experience, meant to document a singular instance or feeling, and allows the public to enter into the intimate and private realms of an emotion or location.
Bayla works with tiny brushes to create elaborate and detailed imagery inspired by the intricate illustrated stories from her childhood. Her paintings often retell traditional stories or events in her own life and narrative. Bayla uses paint, pens and water as a form of personal documentation, to immortalize to some degree, the people and places she has made connections, and impressions with.