I love it when fans of an artist’s work remind me to feature them! So of course, I had a V-8ish slap-myself-on-the-forehead moment when the Managing Editor at Escape Into Life saw me post on Twitter about Christina Baker’s work and reminded me how awesome it would be to feature her over there.
Please go over and take a look!
Every family has an unofficial photographer. That one person you can always count on to be there, camera in hand, to capture milestones, special gatherings and stolen moments. My maternal grandmother played the role in my family. She filled album after album of memories to leave behind and those photographs are among my most treasured possessions. They are a visual storybook of our family history. Greenville, South Carolina artists Signe and Genna Grushovenko find the precious memories of strangers and translate them into paint.
Though the source photographs themselves have been abandoned by their owners, whether by choice or loss, the artists capture the moments and further anonymize them, erasing faces of features and expressions. Thus they become instantly relatable. The faces could be you.. your brothers.. your mother.. your grandmother.
The husband and wife painting duo collaborate on each canvas, husband Genna supplies the underlying layers of color, pattern and texture onto which wife Signe applies the inspired composition of color blocked figures and settings. The use of a vibrant, limited palette allows the eye to focus on form and depth– and there is plenty of it to be had!
We always tend to look back on “the good ol’ days” with fondness. Whether or not the days were really good is debatable, I suppose. But I think there is much we can learn by looking back on the imagery of our past. How to be content. Living with less but living more. Enjoying simple moments with family and friends.
I hope your weekend was filled with simple, blissful living! To see more of Signe & Genna Grushovenko’s work, please visit their website. Oh and be sure to check out one of their gorgeous pieces hanging in the 2012 HGTV Green Home! PS– My hubby is convinced that we’re going to win one of the dream homes. 😉
{Artist found via Dolan Geiman.}
Featured image is Sunspot Class Portrait, oil on linen, 48×60. All images are via the artists’ website.
In case you can’t tell by the blog’s background, I have a favorite color. I love most of the blue family, but am always immediately drawn to the color turquoise. Or, as my niece Kendall calls it “toy-quoise”. So it should come as no surprise that my favorite artwork includes a heavy dose of my beloved hue. Here are some turquoise favorites I’m digging this week:
Erin Ashley | Jeanne Opgenhaffen | Jack Doherty | Rachel Brumer | Josh Reames | Sharon Booma
Do you have a favorite color, Artsies? Do tell! And be sure to take some time to check out the artists’ websites, linked above.
Featured image is Gypsy Blue by Erin Ashley. All images are via the artists’ websites, linked above.
Body language speaks louder than words. Many times, our posture and expression may belie what we’re really thinking, despite the words coming out of our mouths. The paintings of Santa Fe artist Ali Cavanaugh shout with quiet profundity.
Cavanaugh’s inspiration comes much from her dependence upon visual language, due to the loss of much of her hearing to spinal meningitis at a very young age. Utilizing simple compositions with bright palettes and extraordinary light against white backgrounds, Cavanaugh tells visual stories not only of what is meant to be communicated, but also what is kept hidden.
Her figures employ their bodies to communicate– folding their arms and hands to tell the world what perhaps they dare not speak.
Even these tools of communication are often concealed, hiding behind brightly colored socks, as if performing in an impromptu puppet show. They are trying to convey truth, yet it still remains obscured.
Be sure to visit Ali Cavanaugh’s website to see more of her incredible work and to find out where you can see her work in person.
Featured image is Place One End on My Memory That Holds an Imperfection. All images are via the artist’s website.
.. and not a drop to swim in. Well, without a wetsuit, at least here in Northern Idaho. What is it about the water that calls to us, calms our senses, rejeuvenates? These photographers might have a clue, as they’ve answered water’s siren song..
Philippe Cheng | Mertxe Alarcon | Neil Krug | Thomas Hager
To see more work from these artists, please visit their websites linked above. Happy weekend, Artsies!
All images are via the artists websites.
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m far from a wild child. I tend to be calm, controlled, even-tempered. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to abstract expressionist work like a moth to a flame. And the work of Delray Beach artist Brenda Hope Zappitell is a fire this little moth can’t resist!
In her work, Zappitell “surrenders control to the paint, the brush and a visceral process of creative discovery” [sic]. She works spontaneously and rapidly, following the paint as it dances across the canvas.
Taking her inspiration from the energy of nature, her palette builds from light, delicate tints to saturated rapid-fire strokes of bold color.
Squiggles and strokes that could almost be graffiti-like still retain their softness, like a flourishing garden in the middle of an urban metropolis.
To see more of Brenda Hope Zappitell’s work, please visit her website. You can see her work in person at several galleries across the US– be sure to check her website to see if there is one near you!
Featured image is Translation, acrylic with cold wax on panel, 60×30. All images are via the artist’s website.
Sometimes the simplest work can be the most powerful. I’m really drawn to these graphic, color-blocked paintings by Dwayne Butcher that I’ve posted over on Escape Into Life today. Go check ’em out!
So often, when we see gems & minerals, it is rarely in their natural state. After they’ve been cut and polished and set, they seem to lose some of their inherent beauty and mystery. Toronto artist Carly Waito pays homage to these multi-faceted marvels in her small, exquisitely detailed paintings.
Waito uses macrophotography to record the color and intricacies of each cluster, which she then translates into oil.
Through a process of layering, she captures in paint the amazing depth and prismatic qualities that give gems their luster and appeal. By isolating the minerals in their natural state, Waito celebrates their innate beauty.
The visual textures in these small works are simply stunning. And by keeping the works small, Waito invites us in to look closer and really examine the tiny details that make each gem so precious.
To see more of Carly Waito’s work, please visit her website.
Artist found via The Art Stormer.
Featured image is Flourite 2, oil on masonite, 10×12. All images are via the artist’s website.
As soon as we are born, we begin to die. That may be a gloomy thought, but we begin the circle of life at birth and it seems, now more than ever, we fight as hard as we can against the inevitability of age and the ravages of time. Helskinki artist Vincent Bakkuum’s paintings confront us with the transitory nature of our very being.
Using images of vintage-y shoes, skulls and dead birds juxtaposed with beautifully blooming flowers, Bakkum reminds us that what once was young and vibrant eventually will be no more.
Just as the bird that falls from the sky, so will we also cease to fly. Our vanity compels us to continue to adorn what is already beautiful, our very bodies that give us life.
Bakkum’s work reminds us of the inherent beauty to be found in flora and fruit, their beauty and bounty inspires and nourishes us. They are created as we are created and will return to the dust just as we will.
To see more of Vincent Bakkum’s work, please visit his website.
Featured image is Biological Cream by Vincent Bakkum. All images are via the artist’s website.
Pretty sure I read in the latest InStyle Magazine ( we all have our guilty pleasures! ) that polka dots are big for spring. Maybe it’s the influence of Damien Hirst’s spot paintings. Here are some more artists marking the spot!
Georgia Gray | Michelle Y. Williams | Paul Ecke | Tory Cowles
Have a fantastic weekend! If you spot some dots over the weekend, post a photo on the Artsy Forager Facebook page!
All images are via the artists’ websites, linked above.