Skip to content

About
- Find the Forager
My Work
Contact

Category: Figurative

Bathing in Beauty: Nina Nolte

While Mr. F and I are camping in Yosemite, I’m resharing some posts you might have missed the first go ’round! Enjoy!

Although I love the cold winter months, for many, January is a tough month to swallow. All the gaiety of the holidays now in the past, it seems such a long time before the warmth of spring and the ease of summer. So on what may be for many of you a cold, dreary Monday, I thought a little sunshine and warmth from German artist Nina Nolte may put a little spring back in your socked & booted step!

Forgotten Dreams, acrylic on canvas, 100x16x4 cm

Nolte’s depictions of stylish ladies lounging by the pool recalls, to me, a modern-day version of traditional European works depicting the wealthy socializing and at play, such as Fragonard or Boucher. The richness of the color ( that yellow! )and details in the folds of fabric bring to mind the sumptuousness of the textiles of Vermeer.

The Days of Wine and Roses, acrylic on canvas, 100x200x4 cm

The works do hearken back in some ways to European traditions, but it is done in such an enchantingly modern, yet elegantly timeless way.

Some of Those Days, acrylic on canvas, 100x160x4 cm

The viewer is given the position of voyeur, thanks especially to the bird’s eye view angle of many of the pieces. It feels a bit like we’re eavesdropping on some really juicy society gossip!

You Must Believe in Spring, acrylic on canvas, 65x65x4

As Time Goes By, acrylic on canvas, 100x160x4 cm

To bask in more of Nolte’s bathing beauties, please visit her website. Think of these while you’re sloshing through freezing rain and snow!

Featured image is How Deep is the Ocean?, acrylic on canvas, 1oox200x4 cm. All images are via the artist’s website.

September 4, 2014
Sea Creatures. Victor Grasso

Mr. F and I often find ourselves struggling between our love of the seaside and the snow. Snow makes us absolutely giddy, but spending this spring and summer near the ocean perhaps has us leaning toward a life near the water. Each beach walk leaves us in love with the wonder and mystery to be found near the sea. It is this mythical and mystical magic that artist Victor Grasso captures in his beautifully rendered painting series, The Sea is Calling.

In this series, Grasso’s modern mermaids seem to revel in the delights of the ocean, becoming one with its depths, transforming into souls of the sea. The palette of soft greys, inky blacks and warm umbers imitate life in the shallows and the deep, chiaroscuro light falling as if filtered through the water. He takes us into a world of mystery and revelry, where creatures struggle for survival yet live blissfully unaware of what goes on in the world above.

To see more of Victor Grasso‘s work, please visit his website. Tell me, Artsies, does the sea call to you?

All images via the artist’s website. Artist found via Parlor Gallery.

August 27, 2014
Worlds Unreal. Sajjad Musa

Does it seem sometimes that the world is just becoming more and more bizarre? No? It’s just me then. The horrors we see being perpetrated around the world on one hand vs. the insanity of celebrity culture that seems to consume our media and our brains. In these collages by Sajjad Musa I seem that strange collision between the realities of what is happening in the world and the delusions we prefer to concern ourselves with.

It can be overwhelming to think of all that is wrong in the world, there is so much happening that is out of our control. But what we can control is our own education in what is truth and our own reactions to what is happening. Mr. F and I have challenged each other to focus on the positive in each day and we share our positives with each other every night over dinner. It helps to bring our focus off of what is wrong and onto what is right. And it’s helping, even if just a little.

To see more of Sajjad Musa‘s work, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via Sketch 42.

August 22, 2014
Beautiful Pursuits. Anna Halldin Maule

Screen siren and legendary glamor girl Lauren Bacall once said, “I think your whole life shows on your face and you should be proud of that”. Our culture is one that emphasizes youth and associates it with beauty. We’re told over and over again that to be young is to be at your best and your most desirable, so we buck against the aging process in any way we can. Swedish born artist Anna Halldin Maule paints hyperrealistic portraits of our obsession with the pursuit of beauty.

We pluck, wax, and whiten ad naseum to reach that idealized, fleeting “perfection”. We do our best to erase the gray hairs, wrinkles, and sags that tell the story of our life on the canvas of our bodies, choosing instead to homogenize ourselves until every body, every face no longer bears the distinction they were born with. By contrast, Halldin Maule juxtaposes her models with icons of nature’s beauty, flowers and butterflies, who never give a thought to what makes them so lovely. They simply are.

To see more of Anna Halldin Maule‘s incredible oil paintings, please visit her website. Her solo show, Persona can be seen at Scott Richards Contemporary Art in San Francisco through August 30th.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via My Modern Met.

August 18, 2014
Sidelined. Klara Glosova

Its nearly that time of year when the light fades earlier and families spend their evenings and weekends cheering their little ones from the sidelines. My younger brother was big into t-ball, then baseball when he was young, so I clocked a lot of time on bleacher benches. Seasoned soccer mom and Seattle artist Klara Glosova captures those familiar views of life, as seen from the sidelines.

Her paintings and small figurative sculptures are the evidence of careful observation, capturing moments of casual conversation, close attention, and the distraction that comes with hours spent watching the action on the field. We see the figures and light shift, signaling the passing of time, not just on the field, but for each season in each life.

To see more of Klara Glosova‘s work, please visit her website.

All images via the artist’s website and the website of her representing gallery, Bryan Ohno Gallery.

August 15, 2014
August Featured Artist. Gigi Mills

Can you believe we’re entering into the last lazy days of summer, Artsies? I hardly can, but I intend to enjoy it to the fullest! Beginning the end of summer today with the marvelous work of this month’s Featured Artist, Gigi Mills!

studio dog with girl and chair, oil, paper, crayon, and graphite on paper, 19×22

bird dog and the saint, oil and paper on book board, mounted on panel, 9×22

morning with sara, oil on book board, mounted on panel, 14 1/8 x 22 1/8

seaside in a wicker chair, oil on book board, mounted on panel, 10×17

girl with figs and flowers, oil on book board, mounted on panel, 6×17

In this latest series of work, being featured in her solo show, This Life at GF Contemporary, Mills invites us to sit and contemplate the moment in the midst of the pulse and entanglements of this fast paced existence. The artist continues to perfect her reductive style, distilling each captured moment to its fleeting presence.

To see more of Gigi Mills’ work, please visit the websites of her representing galleries, GF Contemporary and Gallery Orange and here on the blog all August long! Be sure to check out the Artsy Forager Facebook page to see an album of my Gigi faves!

All images are via the artist.

August 1, 2014
Evading Realities. Lara Zankoul

From the outside, this traveler’s life must seem incredibly exciting and adventurous, and yes, in many ways it is. But even so, Mr. F and I still deal with life’s drudgery like work, insurance, and laundry. Add to that worries about illnesses among family and friends and we’re both craving an escape from reality. In her conceptual photography, Lebanese artist Lara Zankoul provides her own retreat into dreamland.

The surreal situations painted in soft, dreamy palettes make Zankoul’s work visually stunning, but it is the human element that packs the punch. Figures in enigmatic scenes allow the viewer to eschew the bounds of reality. Floating in a tea cup sounds so lovely, doesn’t it?

To see more of the work of Lara Zankoul, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

July 28, 2014
Hiding in Plain Sight. Flora Borsi

It can be so easy to push what we are or what we’re feeling back into the depths. Everyday life necessitates that we “get on with it” and we genuinely want to. But not being real with ourselves and with the people around us leads to surface relationships in which we just can’t be real. This series by Hungarian artist Flora Borsi beautifully seems to illustrate the struggle to balance self protection and vulnerability.

We need those people in our lives we can get real with. The ones that will cry with us, listen to us, laugh us through the weeping. Maybe we think no one else will understand our struggle. But if we never give them the chance, how will we know?

Borsi mixes photographic elements with painting techniques to create these emotionally charged images. To see more of Flora Borsi‘s work, please visit her website.

All images via the artist’s website. Artist found via I Need a Guide.

July 21, 2014
Tumbling On: Leah Yerpe

Sometimes it feels as if we are simply tumbling through life, being swayed to and fro like a pinball or a tumbleweed. In these incredible large scale drawings, Brooklyn artist Leah Yerpe multiplies her figures as they spill through the air.

Placing her figures on a blank background, we lose any sense of situation, leaving them to float through the air as if caught in a tornado, hurtling down toward the ground. There’s a sense of a loss of control, yet the faces are calm and peaceful– though the winds blow, they simple let themselves be carried.

To see more of the work of Leah Yerpe, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via I Need a Guide.

July 17, 2014
Aqua Therapy: Carol O’Malia

It hardly feels like summer. Here on the Northern Cali coast, the temps have barely ever gotten out of the sixties– I’m still wearing scarves and boots on occasion! In addition to the cooler weather, Mr. F and I both seem to be having trouble getting into a relaxed summer vibe these days. There always seems to be something on the agenda, something to be done, something to plan, somewhere to go. I feel like we’re missing out a bit on the carefree feeling that summer brings, but these paintings by Massachusetts artist Carol O’Malia bring me that much closer.

Any time we’re able to get to the beach, a river or waterfall, any body of water, really, and I see the ripples sparkling in the sun, my mind instantly relaxes and calms. O’Malia really captures the radiance of summer light, not just sunlight, but the way we feel more effervescent in summer. I’m still waiting for that weightless feeling, forgetting everything that’s happening in the world and just soak it all in. I hope it comes soon.

To see more of Carol O’Malia’s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

July 14, 2014

←Previous Page

1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 26

artsy forager

artistic pathfinding by lesley frenz

Blog
About
FAQs
Authors

Events
Shop
Patterns
Themes

Twenty Twenty-Five

Designed with WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email (Required)

Name (Required)

Website