You guys know I love some thick goopy paint! These small paintings by Susan Carr may just be the densest, most luscious piles of paint I’ve ever laid my artsy eyes on.
I’m in love with the way these paths of paint wind their way up, down, and around each canvas, blending and weaving together like rainbowed tree bark. I mean, I kind of want to dip a corn chip into that goodness and eat it. But I won’t. However, I will just sit here and admire and wish I could run my fingers over all that lovely paint.
When it comes to ceremonies and celebrating, it seems like here in the US, our traditions are pretty mundane. Where are all the costumes and displays? For many other cultures, milestones are met with ritual and fanfare. Baltimore artist Amy Boone McCreesh explores that relationship between exhibition and ephemera in her sculptural work.
Crafted from cut paper, ribbons, sequins, found objects, you name it– these sculptures are teeming with texture, color, and movement. Reminding us of maypoles, leis, and exploded pinatas, they are contemporary interpretations of ancient traditions.
Judging from the blog’s title & if you’ve been reading for awhile, you’ve probably guessed that Mr. F and I are the outdoorsy types. We both thrive on time spent among the quiet beauty of the outdoors, whether surrounded by snow-capped mountains or digging our toes into the black sand of Northwest beaches. I’m finding artistic inspiration in nature for my own series of work, so why not find it in the work of other artists, too? Often when I see an artist’s work, my mind connects it to the memory of a place I’ve been or a detail observed or sometimes, an outdoor scene will call the artist’s work to mind. It’s the whole chicken vs. egg thing, but this time, with art and nature.
So with this post, I’m launching a new series, The Artsy Nature, in which I pair a photograph from our traverses in the great outdoors with a piece of artwork.
One of my absolute favorite features in the wondrous beauty that is Yellowstone were the geysers and hot springs. Algae and micro bacteria create gorgeously saturated coloration in the most heavenly palette.
Nature is the most spectacular of canvases, isn’t it? Look for more The Artsy Nature posts coming your way!
Photo by Artsy Forager, art image credit linked above.
As much as I love the other three seasons, there is something different about summer. As in winter, everything slows down but at this time of year, you have the added bonus of warm sun and long days! In her paintings and etchings, New York artist Isca Greenfield-Sanders captures the fleeting freedom of summer days and the carefree ways that come with them.
Even when you’re far from school age or having kids of school age, summer still somehow provides the mental break we all need. It’s like a free pass to just enjoy life! That slowing down gives our minds more time to absorb what’s happening around us and pay closer attention to the people in our world. Aren’t the best conversations to be had while floating on an inner tube? In summer, we see the world through squinted eyes, so that everything is brighter and more perfect, a hazy, lazy feeling that Greenfield-Sanders captures through her work in the loveliest way.
There are certain artists whose work just instantly resonates with me. Perhaps it’s their style or subject matter, but in the case of this month’s Featured Artist, Deb Haugen, it’s both. When I first saw her work waaay back in 2011, I immediately responded to the free flowing naturalness to her work.
Since then, Deb’s work has evolved beautifully, in some cases incorporating graphic drawing as in her ink pieces featured above. These intuitive drawings have a delicious tension between the concrete illustrative quality of intricate patterns and the bright, watery world surrounding them.
I’m not the only one who is drawn to these organic beauties– Neiman Marcus and Crate & Barrel have both carried Deb’s prints ( currently available through Neiman Marcus, new large print to come for C&B! ). But you can also purchase Deb’s work directly through her own website shop! Gorgeous work at super affordable prices, you can’t go wrong!
To see more of Deb Haugen‘s work, please visit her website and be sure to follow her on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram to keep up with what she’s up to! You’ll be seeing more of Deb’s work around the blog & Artsy Forager social media all June long!
I am so ready for a bit of R&R this weekend, aren’t you? This traveling lifestyle that Mr. F and I enjoy has its perks but the desire to see as much of each area as possible while we are here mean that weekends are rarely spent doing much relaxing. These paintings on paper by Anna Topuriya have a lovely sense of ease and leisure to them.
The pale palette creates a peaceful atmosphere and the pops of cerulean blue are tiny little seas of calm. The tropical motifs definitely help foster that sense of a visual vacation, as well as the artist’s compositional style similar to Japanese painting, celebrating the beauty in simplicity.
To see more of Anna Topuriya‘s work, please visit her website. Now excuse me, I think I need to find myself a hammock and a pina colada.
It’s been a while since I shared a new Feminine Wiles piece with you! I’ve been so distracted by the gorgeous weather, hikes with Mr. F, and my new series on paper, that I let the FW pieces slip a bit. But then Sunday came and along with it a warm and sunny afternoon, so I spent some time painting out on our little deck. When I was ruminating on starting this series, iconic feminine film icons were popping into my noggin’ and Rita Hayworth‘s Gilda was among the first to come to mind.
In the 1946 black & white film noir, Rita Hayworth plays title character Gilda, the passionate and beautiful songstress wife of an illegal casino owner. The film plays out a dark love triangle between Gilda, casino owner husband Mundson, and Gilda’s former love, and indebted confidante to Mundson, Johnny Farrell.
The 40s film is teeming with tension– crime, secrets, anger, revenge. It’s not wonder costume designer Jean Louis outfitted the femme fatale character is slinky black, reminiscent of Sargent’s Madame X.
Rita Hayworth as Gilda Mundson Farrell in Gilda, acrylic on canvas panel, 6×6
My darkest FW piece yet, it also has a slightly looser feel– something that I thought fit the characterization of Gilda so well– full of turmoil and contradiction.
To see more from the Feminine Wiles series, check out the series portfolio page. Up next? I’m thinking a little Monroe. 😉
Film image source linked above, painting by Lesley Frenz.
If there was ever a series of photographs I could relate to, Cable Management is it. In this series, Albuquerque artist Andy Mattern documents “the process of reconstructing domestic space”, specifically the often frustrating task of figuring out which cable goes where.
As Mr. F and I move so frequently and live in furnished rentals when we do, we’re often faced with the challenge of learning a whole new layout ( which often involves crashing into walls in the middle of the night for the first week or so ), as well as new appliances and remotes. For the artist, the process of relocating and managing the electronic connections and accoutrements has become a sort of “Zen activity”. For this series, instead of documenting the actual living spaces, the artist composed mock walls and arrangements. The outlets and cables snake up and along the walls, almost taking on an anamorphic quality, the power of connection coursing through their wires.
For many an abstract painter, there is a tense push and pull between artist and material. What makes their heart race is the predictable inquietude of the way the paint will respond and react. The work of artist Zachary Keeting is filled, layer upon layer, with painted gestures carefully considered yet surrendered to the forces of material.
Keeting’s planes of paint are built up like high rises jammed into a cityscape, one on top of the other, but retaining such distinction that the resulting paintings have almost a collage-like feel. Paint is pushed, poured, pulled, manipulated this way and that so that a beautiful chaos ensues.
In a lot of ways, our lives themselves are made up only of memories. Whether our own memories or the remembrances people have of us, those recollections make up the way we others see us and the way we perceive ourselves. In her gouache paintings, San Francisco artist Lindsay Stripling emphasizes memory and perceived realities.
Taking inspiration from vintage photographs, Stripling’s portraits represent an entrance into another world, perhaps a reality or memory different from our own. It’s funny how, you can never have visited a place, yet have a feeling of it merely from associations like film, photographs or stories. How often have we found ourselves in a spot, knowing consciously we’d never been there before, yet having an unshakeable feeling of familiarity?
Memories of our loved ones can be much the same, over time, our associations may change, changing our perceptions and skewing our memories. Our memories are sifted through a giant sieve, so that only the strongest impressions survive.
