Wellesley Native Sells 'Boston in a Box' for The One Fund

During Boston's city-wide lockdown in April one resident--a Wellesley native--came up with a plan to give something back to those affected by the incident a few days prior. 

Leigh Ryan, a Wellesley High graduate, is selling two sets of cards featuring various scenes of Boston through Etsy. Some paintings feature boats on the Charles river or the Green Line MBTA, others the Trinity Church and the 'Make Way for Ducklings' statue. She is giving ten percent of the proceeds to the One Fund Boston, which benefits the victims of the bombing.

Ryan had been taking photos of various iconic scenes from Boston prior to the Marathon. She had over a hundred pictures she had intended to paint some day, taken on a cell phone camera. During the city-wide lockdown, on the Friday following the Marathon, she started to think about what she could do to help those affected by the incident. 

"As crazy as that Friday was, I wanted to get myself away from the TV and be productive. At some point during the day I went through my pictures and realized I had tons of photos of Boston and wondered what I could do with them." Ryan told Patch in an email, "I bought fifteen illustration boards the next day and finished all of the [paintings] less than five weeks later."

In those weeks, she whittled the photo collection down to those she would ultimately sell. She revisited some locations for new angles, but as she recalls, 17 of the 24 pictures were taken in the months before April.

Said Ryan, "I knew I would want to paint a few of the pictures someday I just didn’t realize I’d be painting a couple dozen in a month."

Her favorite piece was from a photo taken in South Boston the morning after the snowstorm dubbed Nemo.

She painted a few scenes each night, and was constantly revising her list of favorite photos. Ultimately, she painted 26 scenes, but only used 24 of them. She split these into two sets, with the variety of subjects divided fairly evenly between them.

This is the first time she has packaged and put her work up for sale on the web. Ryan said art is something she will continue to do, but will balance with her career in communications. The Boston in a Box project is mostly a personal project, but may expand in future. 

"I hope to turn a few of the Boston paintings into matted prints in the future as a continuation of this project, but I’m not sure what will come next after that," she said

Ryan told Patch that she took art classes at Wellesley High with Dr. Callahan. The Art Intensive class prepared her for college-level studio classes, and she would recommend it to any students interested in the visual arts.

Ryan added, "My parents have always been very encouraging of my interests in painting and art history so I grew up knowing visual art was something I was good at."