Paintings of Well-Known Rye Artist on Display at the Rye Free Reading Room

“If not now, when?”

Rye acrylic artist Elizabeth Derderian looked up at the walls of the Rye Free Reading Room where 23 of her most recent paintings–from Rye Playland to Rye Town Park, Ruby’s Oyster Bar & Bistro to Morgan’s Fish House—filled the exhibition space like it was an extension of Rye and its environs. 

And the answer to her question was there in her award-winning art.

“I knew once the kids grew up it was time to get serious about my painting or I was never going to become the serious artist I wanted to be,” she said. "I realized it was now or never."

“What did it take to become serious about your art?” she was asked.

“Setting aside at least two hours per day to do nothing but paint to give myself time to grow into the artist I always wanted to be,” she said.

The most recent examples of her award-winning work are on display at the library through May 11—the latest of Ms. Derderian’s solo shows that have taken place in venues ranging from the Harrison Library to the Greenwich Art Society’s President’s Choice Show at the Bendheim Gallery.

The journey to get to that point really began when she was 11-year-old Elizabeth Balaian growing up in Washington Heights, she recalled. Back then, she knew she liked to draw and paint. She would daydream about becoming an artist, but didn’t know how to make that happen.

Her late father, Paul, an upholsterer, framed one of her floral paintings and encouraged her talent, as did her late mother, Alice, a concert pianist who abandoned her career to concentrate on nurturing her only child.

And even then there were choices for young Elizabeth that started when she had to choose her high school–Bronx High School of Science for the city’s most intellectually gifted students or the High School of Music and Art, which nurtured the creative instincts of would-be artists.

Elizabeth opted for the Bronx High School of Science (BHSS) on the advice of one of her early art instructors who had graduated from BHSS and recommended the school’s arts program and its academics.

When it came to her college choice, she majored in art history at Barnard. When she graduated, she asked herself: “What am I going to do with an art history degree?” Her answer was getting an M.B.A., with distinction, from New York University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.

Next came marriage to Mark Derderian, a Verizon executive, three kids now in their 20s, and time out from her artistic dreams to raise her family in Rye. After raising her family, Derderian decided to commit herself more seriously to art.

She made this decision around a decade ago and started painting at least two hours per day. The results began flowing onto her canvas. Those canvases have won her at least 20 major awards from organizations including the American Artists Professional League, the Art Society of Old Greenwich, the Rye Women’s Club and the Greenwich Art Society.

Along the way, she has been featured in American Artist Magazine, has become an acrylic and oil instructor at the Rye Arts Center, and became a contributing illustrator to various arts publications, from Manhattanville College’s “Inkwell Magazine” to “The Armenian Experience in America.”

Locally, she has an ongoing exhibition of her Rye paintings at On-the-Way Café, has illustrated various covers for the Osborn School yearbook, did the cover painting for the Rye Chamber of Commerce map and visitors guide, made a splash as the commissioned artist for the Pearl Restaurant Group's marketing program (including Ruby’s, Morgans and the Rye Grill & Bar), does home portraits and is a regular participant in the Rye Art Center’s Painters on Location Benefit art shows.

“And I make time to cook home-cooked dinners for my family every night,” she said.

So she's an artist at home on the range as well as at the easel. And her paintings at the library represent a moveable feast of her talent on display.