artsy forager

Author: Lesley

  • Sometimes the Waiting is the Hardest Part: Brett Amory

    Sometimes the Waiting is the Hardest Part: Brett Amory

    Does it ever seem like you are always waiting for something?  An answer to a question, a check in the mail, the pizza to be delivered.  At times, it can feel like life is just a series of waitings.  Oakland artist Brett Amory has created an entire series of work based on the monotony and futility of our waiting.

    Waiting #66, oil on wood panel, 48×48

    There are times when we get so caught up in anticipating what we are waiting for that we miss out on what is happening right in front of us.

    Waiting #54, oil on wood panel, 48×24

    It’s easy to get caught up in what might be around the next corner or where that next bus might take us.

    Waiter #10, oil on mylar, 14×17

    What might happen if we all lived a little more in the moment?  Instead of tapping our feet in impatience, let’s look around at where we are while we are waiting and those we are waiting with.  We may find that we love where we are.

    Waiting #71, oil on wood panel, 48×48
    Waiting #64, oil on wood panel, 71×48

    To see more of Brett Amory’s work, please visit his website.  What are you waiting for? 😉

    Featured image is Waiting #77, oil on wood panel, 96×48.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Happy Easter!

    Happy Easter!

    Hope you enjoy a day filled with sunshine and the love of family and friends!  And maybe some bunnies. 🙂

    Rococo Rabbits by Maribel Angel

    Visit Maribel Angel’s website for more somebunnies to love.

  • Friday Faves: Are You a Sweet Genius?

    Friday Faves: Are You a Sweet Genius?

    Tell me ya’ll have at least seen the commercials for Food Network’s Sweet Genius show.  If you haven’t, you are missing out on some unintentional hilarity!  Hubby and I can’t help but imitate host Ron Ben-Israel each time he utters the show’s tagline, “Are YOU a sweet genius?” in a heavily accented voice.  With shows like Sweet Genius, Cupcake Wars and Cake Boss, there seems to be a quest for confection these days.  How about a few sweet artistic treats to kick off your weekend?  Enjoy!

    Big Banana Split by Mary Ellen Johnson, oil on panel, 38×32
    Black Pool Rock by Joel Penkman, egg tempera on gesso board, 17.7×23.5
    Pink Confetti Cake by Peter Anton, mixed media, 40x51x40
    Coffee and Cake by Duane Keiser

    Mary Ellen Johnson | Joel Penkman | Peter Anton | Duane Keiser 

    Hope you enjoy some sweet goodies of your own this weekend!

    Featured image is Boxed Donuts by Peter Anton, mixed media, 36x37x5.5.  All images are via the artists’ websites as linked above.

  • Artsy Fodder: If I Were a Margaret Glew Painting

    I stumbled across this necklace from Anthropologie on Pinterest today.  If I were a Margaret Glew painting, I would wear this all the time.

    Pieced Prism Necklace, Anthropologie

    necklace available here 

    Always On My Mind by Margaret Glew, oil on canvas, 96×72
  • Expressive Energy Harnessed: Margaret Glew

    Expressive Energy Harnessed: Margaret Glew

    I have such a huge amount of respect and awe for artists who work in the abstract, especially gestural, expressive works like those of Toronto artist, Margaret Glew.

    Animal Dreams, oil on canvas, 72×60

    There is such an amazing amount of controlled chaos in each of Glew’s abstracts, they are fairly bursting with harnessed energy.  The scribbly lines and forms give her work a childlike essence, yet if you’ve ever tried to accomplish excellence in abstract painting, you know ( as I learned in college! ) just how difficult it can be.

    Untitled, oil on canvas, 48×48

    After all, Picasso himself once said “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

    Pitter Patter, oil on canvas, 60×60

    What may seem to a novice eye like mere scribbles and marks are placed yes, perhaps intuitively but deliberately.  For Glew, each shape and line is a kind of shorthand.  She’s created her own visual language, telling her stories in texture, color and gestural expression.

    Untitled, oil on canvas, 48×54
    Untitled, oil on canvas, 48×48

    And it is a story I could read over and over again!  To see more of Margaret Glew’s work, please visit her website.  Many thanks to Artsy Forager favorite artist Christina Foard for the introduction to Margaret’s work!

    Featured image is Pitter Patter ( detail ).  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Art to Inspiration: Pakayla Biehn

    Art to Inspiration: Pakayla Biehn

    This blogging world is chock full of creative and inspiring people.  I am so excited to participate in the collaborative blogging project, Art to Inspiration!  Art to Inspiration is a monthly collaborative blogging project in which bloggers around the world post how the same piece of artwork has inspired them on the first Wednesday of every month.  So let’s get started!

    I was pumped when I saw the artwork inspiration for April, 2 Years, 264 Days and This Morning by Pakayla Biehn, an artist whose work I love and recently featured!

    2 Years, 264 Days and This Morning, oil on canvas, 26×18

    In my gallery days, one of my absolute favorite tasks was to help curate, design and plan how the work was hung in the gallery.  Laying work out, figuring out how pieces relate and the best way for them to work together visually.  So for my first Art to Inspiration, it felt natural to curate my own gallery of work inspired by Biehn’s piece.

    RIGHTTORETURN(DONAUDELTA) by Markus Linnebrink, c-print, epoxy resin on wood, 60×72
    Floral Study by Kristina Bailey, acrylic on canvas, 60×48 ( via Gregg Irby Fine Art )
    The Unending Amends We’ve Made ( Imperishable Wreath ) by Lauren Clay, Acrylic on cut paper,papier-mâché, wire, wood, 30x25x6
    Z.T. by Wil Jansen, oil on canvas, 40x30cm
    The Things We Miss by Lissy Laricchia
    Eggplant by Michelle Armas, acrylic on canvas, 30×40 ( via Gregg Irby Fine Art )

    Pakayla Biehn

    Markus Linnenbrink | Kristina Bailey | Lauren Clay | Wil Jansen | Lissy Laricchia | Michelle Armas  

    Visit the artists’ websites, linked above, for more inspiration!

    You can find more information on Art to Inspiration here and if you would like to participate in the next Art to Inspiration, just fill out this form! Follow me and all the other Art to Inspiration bloggers on Twitter by subscribing here.  Let the inspiring begin! 
    All images are via the artists’ websites unless otherwise noted.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Jennifer Zwick

    Just realized that this didn’t post yesterday! ( Operator error 😉 )

    So many fantastically talented art photographers, so little time!  Check out one of my recent finds, Jennifer Zwick ( thanks to Seattle artist Deborah Scott ) over on Escape Into Life today.

    Jumper Cables, archival pigment print, 18×18

    Jennifer Zwick on Escape Into Life

  • Fragile Ambiguity: Kris Knight

    Fragile Ambiguity: Kris Knight

    Sometimes, in a world filled with sarcasm and cynicism, we can easily forget the vulnerability of the human spirit.  How one wounding word can hurt and haunt us.  Toronto artist Kris Knight’s portraits remind us that the strength we so often feign is not impenetrable.

    Waves ( Augustus ), oil on canvas, 30×40

    The pale pastel palette Knight employs translates to us the inherent frailty of our psyches.  Though each subject takes a strong stance, often looking straight into the gaze of the viewer, their faces tell a different story.  Beneath the facade, we see flushed cheeks, downturned mouths and eyes that seem to be bright with unshed tears.

    Caught, oil on canvas, 12×16

    Some wear netted masks, hiding in plain sight.  While others at once stand defiant under our close attention, yet their eyes are pleading.

    Winter Wheat, oil on canvas, 30×40
    Mischief, oil on canvas, 14×18

    They are the faces of loved ones and strangers.  People we think we acknowledge but who are longing to be known.  To see more of Kris’s work, please visit his website.

    Artist found via Escape Into Life.

    Featured image is Run Deep, oil on canvas, 16×20.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Interconnected Brilliance: Hadley Holliday

    Interconnected Brilliance: Hadley Holliday

    I am not a knitter.  Nor do I crochet, weave or macrame.  I tried crocheting in my middle school Home Economics class and, let’s just say, I didn’t get it.    And all that knit 1, purl 2 stuff?  Just sounds like math to me, which is to be avoided at all costs.  But I love woven textiles.  There is such an innate beauty in the patterns and texture create.  Los Angeles artist Hadley Holliday’s exhibtion, Warp and Weft at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery is weaving together a caliedoscope of color and pattern.

    Sun Vault, acrylic on canvas, 63×63 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )

    She is exploring the worlds of space and depth and the illusions created by overlapping shapes and patterns.  There is a fantastic sense of movement and prismatic expanse to her paintings.

    Blissed Out, acrylic on canvas, 54×60 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )
    Zero Hour, acrylic on canvas, 36×42 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )

    They seem optically illusional in nature, yet there is also an organic quality to them, reminding me of the intersecting lines and orderly nature of a spider’s web.

    Sunshine Day and Night, acrylic on canvas, 54×60 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )

    To see more of Hadley Holliday’s work, please visit her website.  If you happen to be in Southern California, you can see Warp and Weft at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery only until this Saturday, April 7th.  So get moving and see it this week!

    Featured image is Sun Vault ( detail ), acrylic on canvas, 63×63.  All images are via the Taylor De Cordoba website.

  • Towing the Color Line: Matthias Heiderich

    Towing the Color Line: Matthias Heiderich

    Recently I’ve been hesitating to feature certain artists’ work because though I’ve had them in my queue for quite sometime, I suddenly starting seeing their work popping up all over other blog sites.  And the last thing I want to do is seem like a copycat.   But then I said to myself, Artsy Forager, why should you let that stop you from featuring talent that inspires you?  I answered, I shouldn’t.  Simple as that.  Case in point, Berlin photographer Matthias Heiderich.

    Spektrum Eins series

    Heiderich has over ten series of images showcased on his website and any one of them are beautiful enough to be featured.  But I’m currently in love with his most recent series, Spektrum Eins, so this post is full of his signature architectural loveliness.

    Spektrum Eins Series

    He is a master at finding the most interesting buildings and composing their intersecting angles and colors into striking, graphic compositions.

    Spektrum Eins Series

    His compositions are so simple yet so crisp, his colors so bright and bold.  The architectural forms take a backseat to line, color and shape.  Each photo is a celebration of simplicity.

    Spektrum Eins Series
    Spektrum Eins Series

    To see more of Matthias Heiderich’s work please visit his website ( and I highly recommend you do! ).

    All images are via the artist’s website.