I love writing this blog so much. One of my favorite reasons? An excuse to follow the artistic journey of so many amazing artists. California artist Clare Elsaesser was among some of the first artists featured on Artsy Forager and her work just continues to evolve and grow. This latest body of work is so stunning, I couldn’t wait any longer to give you a peek.
Clare’s work is moving into a more complex, narrative direction with these, yet still retaining the simplicity and graphic style that is her artistic trademark. There is so much visual texture and depth and the emotionality that is always present in her work really takes center stage. It feels like we are being given short glimpses into not just a moment in physical existence, but a visceral, intimate look into the spirit of a moment.
Music is an amazing connector. We can be at a concert with thousands of strangers and share one voice. We smile and wink at the fellow coffee shop patron secretly singing along to the ubiquitous Mumford and SonsPandora station. For those who love it, music has the power not just to connect us to people but to connect us to places and memories. These paintings by Melbourne artist Dane Lovett remind me of how the music we love becomes the soundtrack to our lives. ( Sorry, that was a pretty cheesy line. But music does that to me. Just go with it. )
From the lullabies our mothers sing, to the Alphabet Song, to the music-our-parents-hate, we can identify stages and cornerstones in our lives by the music we listened to at the time. When Mr. F and I hear “our song“, no matter where happen to be, we are instantly taken back to those first magical months of falling in love. Music can have the power to heal and to comfort. Musicians and their words have the capacity to communicate what perhaps we cannot. A few years ago, on our first trip together to Glacier National Park, this song came on the iPod as Mr. F and I were ascending up the Going to the Sun Road, surrounded by amazingly beautiful scenery, we were both overcome with emotion– overjoyed at being in such a place with each other and sharing in that moment, the beauty of the song matching the intensity of our feelings. It’s one of my favorite musical memories. Do you have any special musical moments? Share in the comments!
A blank canvas can be a scary, intimidating thing. Many artists have some kind of end product in mind when they make that first mark. But for me, it is the ones who embrace what is happening spontaneously and throughout the painting process that create the most interesting work. For Brooklyn artist Vince Contarino, the practice is one of careful balance between the plan and the process.
According to his artist statement, Contarino develops ideas for paintings through small graphite drawings. Once a painting begins, it is a “continual balancing act between embracing the intuitive nature of the painting process and making aesthetic choices through patient, considered moves.”
I’ve been learning this lesson in my own painting practice recently, perhaps starting with an idea, sketch or palette in mind, but allowing myself to follow the brush where it leads, even if that means something completely different from where I began. The times I’ve allowed myself to do that– still learning not to force myself to conform to a preconceived ideal– are the works I’ve been most proud of. I think Mr. Contarino is definitely on to something!
Our memories of the people we love aren’t full scale photos, but more the recollections of the details that made them special to us– the softness of a grandmother’s hand, the freckles on a child’s face, the little particulars that make us unique. In his work, New York painter Stephen Wright gently records the minutia of a face, a lock of hair, the turn of a neck.
Occasionally, when we sitting together, holding hands while watching Colbert or a movie, I am struck suddenly by the realization that when we’re old and perhaps Mr. F is no longer around, that my hands will remember what his felt like around mine. That those physical memories will be more precious than any photograph could be.
Stephen Wright zeroes in on the minor details of his subjects bodies, we get the sense that we can almost feel what that skin is like, soft, maybe cool to the touch, or we feel the sharpness of a clavicle, the roughness of hair gone grey. I love that his compositions often crop out the subject’s face, after all, we know the hands, feet, the shoulders of our loved ones just as well as their faces, but often fail to really think about how integral they are to our memories of them. What about you, Artsies? What details do you remember most about those you love? I can still smell my grandmother’s perfume and know every freckle on my niece’s cheeks!
All the world can be boiled down to the simplest shapes and forms. Our eyes tend to focus on details, yet when we really look, we can see the world as a system of circles, triangles, and rectangles. Brooklyn artist Don Voisine focuses on the relationship of shape, the forms that exist and the various ways our eyes will perceive them.
Using a limited palette and flat color, Voisine’s shapes seem to shift, moving forward and back within each panel’s picture plane. You can never be quite sure which shapes are in the foreground and which in the background, so that even with the relative simplicity of form, there are complex perspectives happening. And with their tightly cropped composition, we’re left wondering what happens to each line and color once it leaves the confines of the panel.
To see more of Don Voisine‘s work, please visit his website. If you happen to be in the New Haven, CT area, a solo show of his work can be seen through March 1st at the Fred Giampietro Gallery. Don’t miss it if you’re in the area!
Are you missing flowers yet? I absolutely LOVE winter, but we’ve gone a few weeks now without any snow and the brown grass is making me uncharacteristically antsy for spring. I imagine many of you are longing for the brightness of a blooming earth, too, yes? These magical floating floral worlds of Swiss artist Thierry Feuz are sure to warm your spirit.
Flowers and organisms float freely through the atmosphere, squiggling and jiggling their way through, destination unawares. Feuz’s work brings to the forefront of our minds just how very magical the natural world is– how haphazard it can sometimes seem but how cleverly and intricately it is designed and connected. And how very fragile each species is, tethered to life by the most delicate of strings.
I’m a Southern girl. You may not know that about me, since we’ve been all over the Northwest during most of Artsy Forager’s existence. OK some may not include Florida as the Deep South, but North Florida is pretty dang close to South Georgia, which is pretty dang Southern. Mr. F is a Southern boy and while we definitely feel more at home in the Northwest, there are things about the South that are so incredibly identifiable and iconic, that only Southerners, whether by birth or transplant, truly understand. Artist Jon Davenport came to the US South by way of the UK where he grew up well versed in Southern iconography, but it wasn’t until he was fully immersed in its culture that he began his artistic exploration of distinctly Southern tastes.
Jon, who shares a similar style to his wife, this month’s Featured ArtistChristy Kinard, creates heavily textured, layered work filled with vintage advertising imagery much of which built up our ideas about life in the South, for better or for worse. Some of these icons can still be seen as faded paintings on the sides of buildings, especially in small Southern towns. In many ways, there is a fierce desire to hold onto the past in the South, where Sunday dinners at grandma’s and yes ma’am and no ma’am are still the norm.
Yet behind the fun and frivolity and charm, there was a darkness that would best be forgotten and which many Southern cities are still fighting to overcome. Many strive to overcome lingering stereotypes and “Ol’ Boys Networks”, while seeking to maintain the best of what it means to be a part of what has been a troubled region. Davenport’s work with its bright but slightly faded palette and layered drips and splotches of paint remind us that time marches on, ideals fade, but hopefully what is left is our favorite, most positive parts of ourselves.
To see more of Jon Davenport‘s work, please visit his website. His work can be seen in his solo show at Matre Gallery in Atlanta through February 8th. Stay tuned over the next few days for interviews with Jon & Christy in a special “He Said, She Said” feature on what it’s like to be half of a creative couple!
Artists, let me ask you a question. When you paint, do you find yourself mesmerized by the way the paint is moving across the canvas? Not in an I’m a painting genius kind of way, but in an omigod paint is the most beautiful, wonderful thing ever, way? Just me, then? Ooookay. Seriously, it is the gorgeous movement and blending of paint that draws me to the work of artist Francesc Ruiz Abad.
You can see the gentle stroke of the brush, imagine it filled with paint, the colors mixing on the palette first and then the canvas. Light, luscious, cotton candy like movement through the surface of the paint. Colors bleed beautifully into each other, creating a sense of light and softness.
Paintings like these make me want to paint! And run my fingers over each canvas.
January can be a tough month for some folks. I love the winter, but I understand how the cold air, brown grass and gray skies can get ya down. Which is why I love the work of this month’s Featured Artist, Christy Kinard so much– her paintings are like a warm breath of spring any time of the year!
But spring is still three months away, you say? Why not just infuse some warm and bright florals into your probably drab winter wardrobe? Your countenance and outlook will instantly cheer and chase away the January blues!
Want to see more work by our Featured Artist, Christy Kinard? Check out her website.
What drew me to my college art history major wasn’t just the artwork itself, which obviously astounded me, but it was the stories of the artists themselves and how the way they lived influenced their work that fascinated me. In her grids of small scale works, London artist Holly Frean playfully gives us glimpses into art history and the lives of artists.
Small, seemingly insignificant moments like Rothko stretching or Picasso picnicking are captured alongside “larger” events like Lucian Freud painting Queen Elizabeth’sportrait. For all our adoration and their notoriety, works like Frean’s help us to remember that these master artists were every day people, experiencing much of the same mundane moments of life that we do, with a peppering of the extraordinary.
In these tiny little images, we get a film-strip like glimpse into a day or event in the life of the artist. Frean keeps her compositions simple so that much is conveyed with a small amount of visual information. The grids read almost like an Instagram feed, screen captures of each instant, which may reveal much or leave much to the imagination.
