artsy forager

Category: Abstract Art

  • Beautiful Accidents: Caroline Wright

    Beautiful Accidents: Caroline Wright

    “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans..”, is a favorite John Lennon quote of mine.  Often, it’s those unexpected moments that bring the most joy.  Austin artist Caroline Wright’s work is full of incidental beauty.

    Icarus, acrylic on rice paper, 72×39

    Abstract painters like Wright know that these happy accidents contribute to the rhythm and spontaneity so many of us love about abstract work.

    Fragments for Sappho

    Her work has wonderful little punctuations of color that keep the eye moving across the surface. But it’s the unintentional drips and marks that really make each piece soar and create tiny little compositions waiting to be discovered.

    Tropicalia, acrylic on rice paper, 72×39

    Even in her quieter compositions, such as the watercolor & mixed media below, the accidents are more subtle.  The way the colors are delicately placed and soak into each other create soft, exquisite transitions.

    Longing Floats, watercolor, ink, acrylic and graphite on paper, 24×18
    Dog House, acrylic, watercolor, ink & pencil on handmade watercolor paper, 30×22

    To see more of Caroline Wright’s work, please visit her website.

    Featured image is Rain Poncho, acrylic, watercolor and pencil on handmade watercolor paper, 30×22.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Laura Gurton

    I’ve found myself thinking a lot about the beauty of the natural world lately.  As the weather warms, the hubby and I are getting out and doing more hiking ( we may actually be hiking when you read this! ).  I love the natural, microcosmic beauty of Laura Gurton’s work being featured over on Escape Into Life today.

    From the Unknown Species series #56, oil & alkyd on panel, 24×36

    If you get out exploring, take a close look at the small worlds happening around you!

    Laura Gurton on Escape Into Life

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades: Karen Schnepf

    So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades: Karen Schnepf

    Being a hyper visual person, I remember imagery like nobody’s business.  Names, however, often escape me.  So I was very excited when on Pinterest last week, I spotted the Omaha artist Karen Schnepf.  We’d carried a few of her paintings while I was working in a gallery, purchased through an art rep, so we’d never had any contact with her personally.  I was so delighted to find her again so that I could share her striking, color saturated work with you!

    Painting-026, Petals Series

    Let me just say that none of these photos do Karen’s work justice.  Her canvases are super high-gloss, making it nearly impossible to get accurate photos.  But that deep shine is one of the things that I love about her work.

    Painting-031, Petals Series

    The glossy surface enhances the brilliance of her saturated color palette.  Her use of such vibrant color tempered with black and lustrous surfaces call to mind modern stained glass on canvas.  The color seems to virtually ooze across the canvas.  I want to swim in it!

    Remains of the Day 1, 18×24
    Tropical Vacation

    To see more of Karen Schnepf’s work, please visit her website.

    Featured image is Painting-033.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Saturated Fluidity: Anne Harper

    Saturated Fluidity: Anne Harper

    I am craving color.  It seems like spring has sprung everywhere except where we are.  Don’t get me wrong, I love winter, but after almost 4 months without flowers, I am ready for blooming!  So it should be no surprise that this week I’m drawn to the work of Anne Harper.

    Persuasion #2, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

    Spring is full of contrasts– bright flowers glowing against skies wet with rain.  Harpers work parallels for me the loveliness of an urban spring.  Her liquid color reminds me of my first spring visit to Seattle, where the cherry blossoms littered wet sidewalks.  It seemed magical. ( Probably didn’t hurt that I was newly in love, both with the city and my then soon-to-be hubby! )

    Persuasion #4, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

    Then, the rainy days of spring gradually dry, giving way to the glorious glow of summer.  I am ready.  Are you?

    Spontaneous #2, acrylic and mixed media on canvas
    Persuasion #7, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

    To see more of Anne Harper’s work, please visit her website.  In addition to being a fantastic painter, she is also a talented musician!  You can listen to her tunes here.

    This artist found via Saatchi Online.

    Featured image is a detail of Persuasion #4.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Contemporary Retellings: Claudia Smalley

    Contemporary Retellings: Claudia Smalley

    One of the things I loved about studying art history in college was learning the backstories and narratives behind works that seem, on the surface, simply decorative.  Throughout the history of art, still lifes have been used to convey deeper meaning through the symbolism of the objects they portray. In her Peek series, Chicago artist Claudia Smalley looks past the narrative to distill the still life into its simplest values– color, shape and light.

    Still Life I, oil on canvas, 48×36

    Smalley successfully interprets what some might consider a mundane subject ( not me, though! ) into exciting, contemporary abstract interpretations full of movement and texture.

    Still Life 6, oil on canvas, 48×36

    She captures the essence of the genre in terms of composition ( what every art student studies still lifes for! ) and that glorious chiaroscuro employed by masters of the staged vignettes.  Her canvases move and glow with the same delicate rhythm.

    Still Life 5, oil on canvas, 20×24

    While I was in painting studio in college, I remember my favorite instructor telling us to squint in order to see how strong our light and composition was.  Smalley’s Peeks extracts the strongest elements of detailed compositions and redefines them in an equally elegant, though much more modern way.

    Fruit 3, oil on canvas, 24×36
    Still Life 20, oil on canvas, 36×24

    To see more of Claudia Smalley’s interpretational work, please visit her website.

    Featured image is Still Life 2, oil on canvas, 36×24.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Jill Ricci

    Special treat for your Monday!  Due to Escape Into Life website maintenance, my EIL feature ran early yesterday.  Head over and enjoy!

    Love at first sight.  That’s what I felt for Jill Ricci’s work. The colors!  The texture!  The graphics!  I love it all and am sharing it over on Escape Into Life today.  Click on the link below to fall in love!

    Hocus Pocus, mixed media on canvas, 20×30

    Jill Ricci on Escape Into Life

  • I’m loving the slightly Celtic feel of Kelly Eberly’s work!  Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, don’t you think?

    Meragivilato by Kelly Eberly

    Check out Kelly’s blog to see more!