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Category: Still Life

May Featured Artist: Holly Farrell

This year is zipping by like a lightning bug, isn’t it? We’ve rounded the corner to a new month, which means there is a new Featured Artist to enjoy and obsess over all May long! Toronto artist Holly Farrell is this month’s darling and I’m so excited to feature her work here again.

Holly is an amazingly self-taught painter whose work she lovingly describes as “still life as portraiture”. The things we surround ourselves with, especially as children, hold so many memories and associations. Like Holly’s association with pulp paperbacks such as “All the Way” above involve sneaking peeks at the forbidden books as a youngster. The way she portrays each object, worn with use and love, usually on a stark background, helps us connect to our own associations. We see the objects not just through the artist’s filter, but through our own memories.

To see more of Holly Farrell‘s work, please visit her website. If you’re in the NYC area, Holly will be showing at the Outsider Art Fair this weekend, May 8th-May11th! And you can see Holly’s work featured here on the blog & all over AF social media all throughout the merry month of May!

All images via the artist’s website.

May 5, 2014
In the Books: Jordan Buschur

As Mr. F and I travel, we find ourselves not only in a different town but a different home every few months. Some rentals are more furnished than others but we love the ones that have a small library of books. You can tell so much about a person from the books they read! In this series of acrylic paintings, artist Jordan Buschur uses collections of books to give the viewer clues into the stories behind them.

Some titles call out to us, some are left intentionally blank. If you’re a reader like me, you can recount certain eras of your life by the books you were reading– I went through a heavy Jane Austen phase in my single days and now find myself more often devouring artist biographies. Stacks of books can become stacks of time and moments, reminding us of the person we were then, who we were striving to be, perhaps who we were able to overcome.

To see more of Jordan Buschur‘s work please visit her website. She has six pieces, including a few of the above, for sale in her show on Buy Some Damn Art.

All images are via the artist’s website.

March 10, 2014
A Lovely Disarray: Carmelo Blandino

In love, as in life, things aren’t always neat and orderly. Emotions go awry, we find ourselves sliding down the rabbit hole of sensitivity, going from sadness to anger to regret to tenderness and back again. These large scale floral paintings by Florida artist Carmelo Blandino capture that undeniable exquisite mess that comes with loving another person.

Paint is applied thick and frenzy-like, just like the whirlwind of those first moments of falling in love, every touch, every minute together is dripping with excitement and overwhelming beauty. Then, as time goes on, we settle into a different kind of messy loveliness, the kind that knows what you look like first thing in the morning, but can’t wait to kiss you anyway. The kind that loves you through your moodiness and emotional outbursts. The kind that fights honestly and fairly and then loves you even more when it is over.

On this Valentine’s Day, I wish you the messiest sort of love, dear Artsies! If you’d like to see more gorgeous flowers by Carmelo Blandino, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via My Modern Met.

February 14, 2014
Having Your Cake: Lori Larusso

You know one thing I miss about working in an office? Cake days. Birthdays, new babies, going aways, work anniversaries– any excuse to have an afternoon cake break in the lunch room. I was always amazed by how having a little treat in the middle of the day made the work day seem just a bit special. I can almost taste these painted treats by Kentucky artist Lori Larusso.

It’s interesting how important food is, the preparing of it, the gathering, the sharing and consuming, to so many cultures, including our own. How baking cookies for someone is a warm and welcome way to say thank you and how we wouldn’t dream of having a celebration without food! Why do you think that is? Perhaps because our need to eat is so universal? Because we all need and crave food, it’s the perfect ice breaker and status leveler. Maybe that cupcake isn’t on our diet, but the child we share it with will remember the moment always.

To see more of Lori Larusso‘s work, please visit her website. Her work will be showing as part of a traveling exhibition at the Schneider Museum of Art at SOU in Ashland, OR until March 15th.

All images are via the website of the artist’s representing gallery, Skidmore Contemporary Art.

February 4, 2014
Going to 11: Dane Lovett

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 Sons Pandora 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!

To see more of Dane Lovett‘s work, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

January 29, 2014
January Featured Artist: Christy Kinard

Happy 2014, Artsies! I can hardly believe we have turned the calendar over to a new year so soon! 2013 was a year filled with changes and opportunities, some worked out, some didn’t, but I hope we all have come out stronger and wiser and read to take on the world in the year ’14! I’ve lined up a slew of fabulous artists taking part in the monthly Featured Artist program ( going strong for nearly 2 years now! ) for this year and am excited to kick off the year with the lovely work of Memphis artist Christy Kinard, who’ll be gracing the blog and AF social media all this month!

Like me, Christy is a Southern girl whose work lovingly reflects the bounty and color of life in the South. Southerners in general are great lovers of beauty, and often lovingly tend gardens exploding with color. In these mixed media paintings, Christy weaves a tale of Southern charm and tradition, taking inspiration not only from Southern gardens and flora, but also from quilt making and childhood memories.

Her work has layers of texture and color, much like life anywhere, deeply rich and filled with meaning, memory and secrets. The bouquets she chooses to paint aren’t necessarily prim and proper, they’re a bit messy and beautiful in their imperfections.

To more work from Christy Kinard, please visit her website and Facebook page. And while you’re doing the Facebook thing, head over to the Artsy Forager page to check out Christy’s cover art and an album of some of my personal favorites from her portfolio!

All images via the artist’s website.

January 1, 2014
Sweet Decadence: Heather McCaw Kerley

I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things about this time of year is the food! Putting diets aside, we allow ourselves to focus on the inherent feast for the senses that delicious food can bring. Nothing beats the scent of freshly baked bread wafting through a home, am I right?? This season is about indulgence and much of it of the decadent sweet kind. In her Bakery series, artist Heather McCaw Kerley focuses her attention on those baked objects of desire.

Isolating these treats, each a monument to delightful indulgence. “I’ll have just one“, these seem to be saying. And when we taste the sweetness of icing on our tongues, a wave of satisfaction washes over. We know we can’t make a steady diet of doughnuts and cupcakes, but oh, if only we could! How sweet life would be. Maybe. Or perhaps, if we were to indulge all the time, special treats would lose their luster. We would no longer savor them slowly, but devour them without truly tasting their deliciousness. I think the same can be said of events like holidays, if we were celebrating this way every day, the shine would soon grow weary. But its the anticipation, the build up, the focus of intensity that makes these days so special. Let’s savor them like the delectable cupcakes they are.

To see more of Heather McCaw Kerley‘s work, please visit her website and be sure to follow her on Facebook and Pinterest

December 24, 2013
Handle With Care: Yrjo Edelmann

I have yet to wrap a single Christmas gift. But the online orders are due to arrive any day and I am supplied and ready to dive in. I love this part!! Every year, I would wrap my gifts just so, often thinking of what type of wrapping the giver might enjoy as much as making it look artful and pretty. Some may think, “what’s the point”? It’s what’s inside that matters, right? Well, not entirely. You see, to me, the gift is the entire process– spending the time choosing something the recipient will enjoy, carefully and lovingly wrapping the gift, and seeing their surprise and delight when opening it. In these paintings ( yes, paintings! ), Swedish artist Yrjo Edelmann presents us with meticulously painted images of hastily and carelessly wrapped packages. Are these treasures or leftovers from “the gift closet“?

Now, just because a gift isn’t perfectly wrapped doesn’t mean that the giver didn’t put a lot of thought and effort into it. Maybe wrapping just isn’t their thing. Maybe they’re being ironic in a isn’t it more artsy this way kind of way. But don’t we give more care to the things we find important? Would you wrap a Picasso all willy-nilly?

Sometimes I think we are so materially blessed in this country that we are rarely truly grateful for even the smallest of things. I remember my grandmother telling me the Laura Ingalls-ish tale of being delighted in receiving an orange every Christmas as a little girl. An orange! Not an orange iPhone, not an orange Lexus. A piece of fruit. And she looked forward to it every year. This season, its my hope and challenge to give and receive freely and thoughtfully and with a gracious heart. Every gift will be as precious to me as an orange.

To see more of Yrjo Edelmann’s work, please visit the website of his representing gallery, Galleri GKM.

All images via the Galleri GKM website.

December 17, 2013
Woodland Treasures: Marilla Palmer

When we go out hiking, Mr. Forager is, with the exception of gorging on huckleberries and the like, strictly a leave-it-as-you-found-it hiker. I am too, for the most part, although I sometimes find myself so very tempted by that perfectly shaped leaf or beautiful wildflower. A stone does occasionally find its way into my pocket, but with our traveling, my hoarding of rocks is limited. Last week, I came across the work of Marilla Palmer, whose delicate constructions examine the intricacies of the forest and man’s hand upon it.

The artist tenderly renders wispy branches, then adds in embroidery, sequins, glitter, and such. The resulting compositions have the feeling of modern botanical renderings, a celebration ( or perhaps condemnation? ) of the coming together of man and nature.

If you’d like to see more of Marilla Palmer‘s work ( be sure to check out some of her sculptural pieces! ), please visit her website.

Artist found via Kathryn Markel Fine Arts. Images via the artist’s website & Kathryn Markel website.

October 22, 2013
Transitory Nature: Kyle Stewart

Transitions are always inspiring to me– the changing of seasons, the shift into a new life, the evolution and transformation. The transitional seasons of our lives always seem to bring about a renewed energy and purpose. In perusing the work of Toronto artist Kyle Stewart this morning, got me to thinking about how each experience builds upon the next as we move through this life.

In Stewart’s work, you see him working out, playing and stretching through each canvas. Scrolling through his paintings, you get a visual sense of each transition as he moves from tighter, more constrained abstracts into looser, quieter work, trying out narrative details along the way. How amazingly does the life cycle of art mimic our own? We too, move in and out of seasons, changing and transitioning, sometimes ever so slightly, sometimes in big, big ways.

If you’d like to see more of Kyle Stewart‘s work ( and I highly recommend you do! Every piece is stunning! ), please visit his website and follow along on his artistic journey through his Tumblr, Facebook & Instagram feeds.

Images via the artist’s website.

October 4, 2013

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