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  • Soulful Accoutrements: Gabriel Fernandez

    Soulful Accoutrements: Gabriel Fernandez

    I’m a sucker for furniture.  I love the mixture of function and design.  And paintings of furniture?  Well, those hold a special place for me as I went through my own “chair” phase while I was studying painting in college.  So when I spotted the work of Gabriel Fernandez at Guardino Gallery in Portland this weekend, he had me at hello.

    Eichler Book on Table, oil on canvas, 24×36

    Fernandez creates scenes using furniture as another artist might use human models.  He sets the stage to tell a story, of a moment that just happened or is about to occur.  His compositions focus on the beauty of the objects themselves, the lives that they have led.. maybe an interesting life in a public place or a spiritless existence in a warehouse.

    Orange Chair In Front of Radiator, oil on canvas, 25×21

    The artist seems to be exploring the relationship of the objects to their environment, as an important player in a larger scene.  His use of light and shadow create a sense of emotion and mood, keeping the images from becoming mere still lifes, but instead imbuing them with a sense of story.

    Coos Bay Laundromat, oil on wood, 14×19.25Green Chair With Three Suitcases, oil on canvas, 20×22 Green Chair With Three Suitcases, oil on canvas, 20×22

    These are objects with soul, with personality, experience.  A past, a present and a future.

    Green Chair With Three Suitcases, oil on canvas, 20×22

    To see more of Gabriel Fernandez’s work, visit his website.  Or, if you’re lucky enough to be in or near Portland, OR, drop by the Guardino Gallery in the Alberta Arts District.

    All images are courtesy of the artist’s website.

  • Coming in September!!

    Featuring posts on fashion-designer artists, jewelry artists, artists with style for miles, fashion inspired art, art inspired fashion and much more!

    Be runway dressed and ready to brave the paparazzi for Artsy Forager’s very own artsyFashion Week!

  • Friday Faves: Map It Out

    Friday Faves: Map It Out

    My husband and I look at a lot of maps.  For the next several years, we’re moving to a new locale every three months, plus we spend weekends exploring the areas surrounding wherever we happen to be living.  Oh, and there are also all the future travel plans.  Like maybe a stint in Thailand in 2013.  ( I KNOW!.. so exciting!! ).  We use whatever maps we can get our hands on.. Google maps online at home, GPS in the car and of course, our good ol’ reliable atlas.  Currently, we’re pouring over maps as we anxiously await the locale of G’s next work assignment.  A month from now I will be typing the Friday Faves from a whole new setting, crazy isn’t it?!

    Turns out we aren’t the only ones inspired by maps.  Check out some of my favorite artists who incorporate these geographic illustrations into their own artwork.  Happy travels!

     

    Richardson by Rachel Ann Austin
    Richardson, mixed media, 5×5
    Navigate ( detail ) by Amy Rice
    Drifter’s Atlas No. 2 by Dolan Geiman
    Fear Hope Oblivion by Francesca Berrini
    A Good Mess by Wyanne Thompson

    How about it, Artsies?  Anyone mapping out adventures for the weekend?  Have a maptastic artist to share?  Do tell!

    1.  Rachel Ann Austin

    2.  Amy Rice  ( Featured image is Tandem by Amy Rice )

    3.  Dolan Geiman

    4.  Francesca Berrini, more of her map artwork can be found at G. Gibson Gallery, here.

    5.  Wyanne Thompson

  • Delicate Awakenings: Marsha Boston

    Delicate Awakenings: Marsha Boston

    Normally, I love thick paintings.  Canvases piled high with mounds of paint and lots of gooey and delicious texture.  But there is a fluidity in abstract watercolors that I find just as appealing.  Watercolorist Marsha Boston imbues her work with such a lovely sense of light and tranquil color, they feel like looking at the world from under a blanket of warm water as the sun shines above.

    Saucer Magnolia, watercolor and ink

    Her botanical work focuses on our relationship with nature, our power over it in areas such as genetic engineering and nano-agriculture.  How easy it seems to be for man to take for granted and ultimately destroy the delicate balance that is inherent in the natural world, all for our own purposes.

    Leaf Mutants in Pea, acrylic on canvas

    Her Remembering Water series stemmed from the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill, spawning an interest in aqueous plants and their usefulness and value in our ecosystem.  When oil spills occur, much is made of the impact on animal life, but the harm to plants and microorganisms that sustain them is rarely highlighted.

    Widgeon Grass, Remembering Water series, acylic on canvas
    Oculina, Remembering Water series, watercolor on Fabriano

    I love art for art’s sake and pretty pictures as much as the next girl.  But do you know what I love even more?  Beautiful artwork that tells an important story.  And that’s what Marsha Boston’s work does.  It is telling us the story of the destruction and misuse of the very resources that are here to not only sustain us but give us pleasure.  It would be a sad day if there were no more wildflowers to inspire artists like Boston to capture their beauty.

    Mountain Cranberry, watercolor and ink

    To see more of Marsha Boston’s work, please visit her website and Facebook page.

    Featured image is Indian Fig, watercolor and ink by Marsha Boston.  All images are courtesy of the artist’s website.

  • Elegant Embodiments: David Engdahl

    Elegant Embodiments: David Engdahl

    I have not tried to reproduce nature, I have represented it.

    — Paul Cezanne

    Never where these words more true than in the work of sculptor, David Engdahl.  The former architect has been shaping wood to create beautiful sculptures for over twenty years.  Inspired by the forms in the environment surrounding his home in north Florida, Engdahl takes his cue from organic shapes, simplifying or exaggerating them to create elegant embodiments of the natural world.

    Lamelliform 128

    Using plywood, a mechanically manipulated natural material to create these organically inspired sculptures creates a dynamic tension between the material and inspiration source.  By taking a normally lower level type of wood source and creating spledid sculptures, Engdahl is not only taking something “ugly” and making it beautiful, but also hearkening back to the wood’s original forms.

    Lamelliform #91
    Lamelliform #21

    The beauty in nature is all around us.  But we rarely notice it, much less ponder it.  Engdahl’s work may help us recall the glimpse of  antlers in the woods, the shadow of a sea turtle making its way across the surface of the deep or the swaying of thin branches in the breeze.

    Lamelliform #200

    He brings nature and artifice together in a way that reminds us that they can work together to reveal the best in each.

    To see more of David Engdahl’s work online, visit his website. Be sure to check out this wonderful video in which the artist explains his creative process and give you a glimpse inside his home studio.  If you’re in the North Florida area, stop by Studio 121 at 121 W. Forsyth Street in downtown Jacksonville, where he will be the featured artist, August through October.

    Featured image is Lamelliform #194.  All images are courtesy of the artist’s website.

  • Playing Dress Up: Robin Williams

    Playing Dress Up: Robin Williams

    I find myself continually drawn to artists who realistically paint the human figure, but reimagine it in unique ways.  ( see:  Deborah Scott, Susan Hall, Jeff Whipple & so many more I’ve yet to share with you ).  So it goes without saying that the work of New York based painter Robin Williams ( no, not THAT Robin Williams ) got me really excited.

    Party Hat by Robin Williams

    You know I love work that’s just a little bit cheeky.  Williams paints scenes from childhood imaginations & experiences and portraits of figures dressed up in a stunning array of absurd costumes.  Her wide-eyed, willowy figures have a Norman Rockwell-ish timelessness to them.  But Williams invests in her gawky, pre-pubescent figures a darkness and absurdity missing from Rockwell’s happy-go-lucky world.

    Ornamented Boy by Robin Williams

    Her portrait figures pose stiffly in outlandish costumes and headresses, seemingly unsure of how they found themselves in such a situation.  Perhaps speaking to how we begin as wide-eyed children, but as we grow into adults, we find ourselves wearing the most ridiculous costumes in order to appear to fit into someone else’s conception of who we are.

    Flower Cap by Robin Wiliams

    Other figures find themselves in the midst of a preposterous scene, almost like a dream of a childhood memory.. the way we remember places and events from childhood in a more fantastical, exaggerated way.

    Swoon At The Water Pump by Robin Williams
    Tired Prince by Robin Williams

    The portraits, for me, especially convey that feeling of what it was like to be a kid full of energy and vitality only to be forced to sit still, whether in school, church, etc.  That feeling of a corralled hurricane, just waiting to break free of the constraints being forced upon us.  On second thought, you don’t have to be a child to feel that way, do you?

    Collar On Boy by Robin Williams

    Please visit Robin Williams’ website to see more of her work online.

    The featured image is titled Yellow Hat.  All images courtesy of the artist’s website.

  • Are Chickens the New Black?

    Are Chickens the New Black?

    I admit, I’m not always up on the very latest trends, I am in my 30’s after all.  I knew all about the “Put a Bird On It” trend, but had no idea that art featuring chickens had become such a big deal.  Chicken art makes me think back to my grandma’s house and her Americana farm scene prints featuring chickens.  And her ceramic chicken collection.  Needless to say, chickens aren’t the first subject that jumps to mind when I think of the latest in the art world.  But for whatever reason, these birds are fowls are ruling the roost.

    Roost by Brian McGuffey

    Seattle area artist, Brian McGuffey draws from childhood experiences in his creative process.  In “Roost”, pictured above, he elevates the rooster from lowly barnyard animal to a dignified, full-plumed specimen.  Just look at that profile.  You know all the hens would be clucking all over him.

    King of the Hill by Sydney McKenna

    Why did the chicken cross the road?  To attend a chicken-only art show, apparently!  St. Augustine, Florida artist, Sydney McKenna painted “King of the Hill”  specifically for a show at the W.B. Tatter Studio & Gallery celebrating not just chickens, but also the gallery’s sixth year anniversary.  I hope they served a vegetarian menu for the opening. 🙂

    But the Tatter who is by no means the only chicken show I’ve covered in recent months.  Remember Yvonne Lozano’s What Happened to the Chickens show?  Yvonne created an entire series of painting centered around a family trip to Colombia and a few friendly chickens she met there as a child.

    Here, Chicky Chicky by Yvonne Lozano
    Out and About by Hilary Williams

    But chickens in art aren’t just reserved for the barnyard.. In “Out and About”, San Francisco based artist Hilary Williams  depicts a little hen who seems to have escaped and is enjoying a lovely day on the town.  This chick is ready for a ladies lunch and some retail therapy.

    Speaking of plucky adventurers ( pun intended ), Dolan Geiman’s Blue Highway also shows how chickens in art aren’t just for grandma’s kitchen anymore.  Geiman’s graphic, mixed media approach results in work that is more contemporary than kitsch.

    Blue Highway by Dolan Geiman

    Where is this upsurge in chicken art leading?  Only the chickens know for sure.  The banty in Jim Draper’s Cross Creek seems ready to take the road less traveled.  And maybe that’s what the chicken art movement is all about.

    Cross Creek by Jim Draper

    The featured images is Laughing About This Life by Hilary Williams.  All images are courtesy of the individual artist’s websites.

    PS– I restrained myself from finding a Road Crossing Chicken joke to go with each piece of artwork.  You’re welcome.

  • Friday Faves: Sugar & Spice

    Friday Faves: Sugar & Spice

    Maybe it’s the little girl inside me.  Maybe it’s a way to relive the days when my imagination was unshackled and my days were carefree.  Who knows.  Whatever the reason, I am always drawn to whimsical, fanciful imagery of girls.  The kind fairy tales are made of.  These Friday Faves are everything nice.

    Boundlessness in Bloom by Duy Huynh
    Migration by Shannon Richardson
    Migration by Shannon Richardson
    4 Keeps by Wyanne Thompson
    Wildflowers by Rene Lynch

    Stay tuned for features soon on each of these artists!  In the meantime, be sure to check out their websites!

    1.  Duy Huynh ( featured image is also by Duy Huynh )

    2.  Shannon Richardson

    3.  Wyanne Thompson

    4.  Rene Lynch 

    Hope you have a wonderful weekend, filled with fantastical fun!

  • It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Hilary Williams

    It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Hilary Williams

    The world(s) created by Hilary Williams, that is.  But really her work is no more absurd than the world we see around us every day.  A San Francisco printmaker, Hilary takes elements of urban life, the natural environment and their inhabitants and repositions them into surreal landscapes.

    Song and Dance for a Laugh

    Haunting images of leaning buildings and ghostly figures are juxtaposed with decorative motifs and child-like doodles.  Echoes from the past haunt the present, creating a commentary on how far we’ve come, but perhaps, how little we have truly gained.

    Herding Out Saturday Night

    The dark, eeriness of the iconic architecture contrasts with the light and cheerful colors and patterns to create an absurd dichotomy.  Not unlike many recent trends that look to the past while still trying to find a place in the future.  Such irony is not lost on this artist and conveys the struggle of humanity to co-exist within the urban and natural landscape.

    Adventures in Coasting

    Hilary’s work is heavily layered which gives it a visual depth and complexity that draws the viewer in.  There is so much to see and figure out.  My husband George & I first saw Hilary’s work in The Pines Art Gallery in Hood River, OR.  We fell in love with her work and George could not stop looking at it.  A true testament to the power of the work!

    The Front Porch by Hilary Williams

    Check out more of Hilary’s work on her website, I think you’ll love it as much as George & I do.

  • Organic Perspicacity: Deb Haugen

    Organic Perspicacity: Deb Haugen

    Addendum:  If you like Deb Haugen’s work, prints will be available via One King’s Lane beginning August 5, 2011.

    Organic is a hot word these days. It’s everywhere in the grocery store, pharmacy, heck just googling “organic” yields 430,000,000 hits.  When most of us hear the word today, we think of pesticide-free, naturally grown food.  Just as the organic food we eat is allowed to develop naturally, so is the Organic Art of Deb Haugen.

    Butterballs

    Deb sees the world through the fundamentals of nature, those microcosmic worlds that are happening unseen right before our very eyes.  She is using her paints intuitively, creating not a visual representation of the reality of the appearance of nature, but rather the emotionality of our response to the natural world around us.

    La Lumiere de Vie

    The artist’s response to those “atmospheric memories” is sketched out on paper and canvas in loose, biomorphic shapes that float within a watery universe.  These are the painterly representations of the feeling of dipping your toes into a frigid, running river, the scent of the woods after a summer rainfall, the movement of a snail along the forest floor.

    Organic Mama by Deb Haugen

    As one who does a lot of looking down while hiking ( serious klutz, party of one ), many of Deb’s paintings remind me of the intricate story that is being told beneath our feet.  There is so much to witness, if we would only take the time to stop and notice, truly experience the miracles taking place all around.

    She’s So Complex

    Don’t just make due with eating organic food.  See with organic eyes.  Really get to know the natural world around you, even in your own backyard.  There are stories it would like to tell you and wonders to show you, if you would only stop, look and listen.

    If you’d like to see more of Deb Haugen’s work, check out her website, The Organic Artist.

    What are your favorite “atmospheric memories”?