1950's
"These paintings are all related to my own environment.
Holiday
This is Seaside Park. As you can see it's a thunderstorm coming up. I discovered that the people seem to be at a festival and so I called it holiday."
J Street
"The creation of this piece was a kind of discovery for me, because here I began to realize that the picture wasn't as important to me as what was happening as I was observing and painting. The picture began to dictate to me. I found I could paint freely and without any pre-planning
This painting is part of my environment, part of the things that surrounded me. This was the corner of Johnson St. and Ridge Ave, a corner I knew well. In this case, I painted from memory. I suddenly envisioned this little figure of a girl. She looked like a little blossom with her little pink coat and white gloves on this rather grim and shabby rundown corner.
The story then began to develop in my mind. This little girl just came to be there and from that the story I thought of it as Easter Sunday. Now the little girl shows this in her brand-new clothes and bright pink. The man standing or leaning against an old beat-up car is unaware probably that it is even Easter Sunday.
The three little boys there. Two of them are dressed in ordinary everyday clothes. But the third little boy with the Sunday newspapers is dressed partly for Easter Sunday too. And the lady walking around the corner on Ridge, with a pot of flowers; also, part of the Easter Sunday scene."
Worcester Poolroom
Typical West End of Bridgeport
The Strikers
1955 Strike in Bridgeport Factory
Sir Thomas More
The House that Jack Built
Perry's Mill, Fairfield, CT
Grandpa
Portrait of artist's father holding a candle holder that he created
John
Portrait of artist's son age four
Black and Tan
Night Shift
Waiting for bus outside factory where artist worked. Handy and Harmen, Fairfield, CT
Willie
Employee at Handy and Harmen
The Barker
Uncle Joe
Joseph Lynders - artist's uncle
Park Rest
Bar at foot of Park Avenue, Bridgeport, CT looking under railroad bridge
Newsboys
Bridgeport street scene
Not by Bread Alone 1955
"This was a man that was well over 6 foot tall and weighed well over 200 pounds. And I worked with him at Handy and Harman and Fairfield. He used to sit in what we call the changing room and have his lunch there and he always had the Bible with him. And if you passed by him, he would just hold you up and he'd preach from the Bible. And I, I've just sort of picked up the title of not in bread alone from that. He has really a very, very nice man and unfortunately died at a very early age. This painting was in the collection of Corcoran Museum in Washington D.C."
Beach Party
The Cooch Dancer
Man on a Ladder
Taking Christ off the cross
Tattooed Man
I've always been interested in tattooed people. I've been interested in the tattoo and the design of the tattoo itself.
This is a South Pacific native. The tattoos on this man's body are identifications of his answers. These particular designs that were tattooed on the body may be family identifications that came down through generations. And a certain design meant a certain relationship to a family.
Wedding in Warren Court
Wedding in Bridgeport, note overpaint on fence, one of the first indications of the multiple image technique
Mural - Life of Gonzaga - Fairfield University Fairfield, CT
Bernard Riley grew up in the times of the WPA murals but was never able to obtain a commission. However, he did love the large works and offered Fairfield University, a Jesuit college in Connecticut a mural on the life of the young Jesuit Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. He spend months researching and more months painting the mural in Gonzaga Hall. It remains there today