artsy forager

Posted on August 5, 2014

It feels like such a hard world these days, doesn’t it? It can be a challenge to find a bit of softness. Colorado artist Ruth Hiller juxtaposes industrially crafted plywood with brightly colored organic beeswax, creating a happy softness among the hard edges.

I love the kind of California-surfer-cool vibe to these. The summery colors against the wood grain have a mod, beach house feel. The graphic nature also seems to nod to visual identifiers like signs and flags. Whatever wave she is riding, sign me up!

To see more of Ruth Hiller‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website and Facebook page.

Posted on August 4, 2014

I can always tell when Mr. F has been in a room.. usually a light is on, a cabinet door open, a hand towel wadded up. It drives my little neurotic mind crazy, but I secretly love it. These are the signs that there is another life here with me, one that is a bit messy at times, but sometimes our neatly organized lives need a bit of messing about. In these paintings by Dutch artist Erik Mattijssen is that same feeling of spaces occupied by a life just left.

The elements of these lives at still may sometimes seem a bit incongruous, strange combinations of objects and arrangements. But isn’t life like that? As much as we like to Instagram the perfectly arranged and styled moments in our lives, at any given instance life is full of these kinds of odd arrangements.

If you’d like to see more work by Erik Mattijssen, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Artsy Forager Featured Artist Daily Artsy Figurative Paintings

Posted on August 1, 2014

Can you believe we’re entering into the last lazy days of summer, Artsies? I hardly can, but I intend to enjoy it to the fullest! Beginning the end of summer today with the marvelous work of this month’s Featured Artist, Gigi Mills!

studio dog with girl and chair, oil, paper, crayon, and graphite on paper, 19×22

bird dog and the saint, oil and paper on book board, mounted on panel, 9×22

morning with sara, oil on book board, mounted on panel, 14 1/8 x 22 1/8

seaside in a wicker chair, oil on book board, mounted on panel, 10×17

girl with figs and flowers, oil on book board, mounted on panel, 6×17

In this latest series of work, being featured in her solo show, This Life at GF Contemporary, Mills invites us to sit and contemplate the moment in the midst of the pulse and entanglements of this fast paced existence. The artist continues to perfect her reductive style, distilling each captured moment to its fleeting presence.

To see more of Gigi Mills’ work, please visit the websites of her representing galleries, GF Contemporary and Gallery Orange and here on the blog all August long! Be sure to check out the Artsy Forager Facebook page to see an album of my Gigi faves!

All images are via the artist.

Abstract Art Daily Artsy Installations Paintings

Posted on July 31, 2014

As artists, often what we want to express can’t be contained between the four straight lines of a canvas. So artists like Australian artist Kate Tucker push the boundaries of surface and form, leading to paintings that seem to break free from their molds, even as those same structures hold them in place.

Even paintings framed in a traditional way seem liberated when incorporated into an installation of shards of compositions. Each painting reflects the installation, which reflects the painting. It’s like a wonderful tale of deliberate chaos.

To see more of Kate Tucker‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via Art Hound.

Daily Artsy Landscapes Paintings

Posted on July 30, 2014

For artists, inspiration lurks around every corner. And sometimes, what we find amazing one day isn’t quite as captivating the next. There’s something about that certain moment in time, the light, the shadows, the color, that enchants us, but may be as fleeting as the wind. In her work, German artist Carola Schapals captures the moments that touch her, the scenes in which there is a hint of something wonderful.

I love the way Schapals captures the colorful evanescence in the way the light is falling at that given moment. A few minutes later and the mood of each scene could be completely different. There is something utterly magical in the capturing of atmosphere and she’s done it so very beautifully, with deep shadows and dappled light.

To see more work by Carola Schapals, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website. Artist found via The Jealous Curator.

Daily Artsy Sculpture

Posted on July 29, 2014

I have a soft spot for vintage pressed glass. My grandmother had tons and in a few boxes in storage somewhere, I have my own collection of milk glass. So when I spotted the work of Philadelphia artist Amber Cowan, I was immediately in love.

Cowan creates her magical sculptures from a process of flameworking, blowing, and hot-sculpting thrifted American pressed glass. The most amazing form of creative upcycling! With its tightly bunched flora and peek-a-boo fauna, Cowan’s work takes on a wonderfully gothic, fairy tail-like effect, like intricate illustrations come to life.

To see more of Amber Cowan‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Figurative Paintings

Posted on July 28, 2014

From the outside, this traveler’s life must seem incredibly exciting and adventurous, and yes, in many ways it is. But even so, Mr. F and I still deal with life’s drudgery like work, insurance, and laundry. Add to that worries about illnesses among family and friends and we’re both craving an escape from reality. In her conceptual photography, Lebanese artist Lara Zankoul provides her own retreat into dreamland.

The surreal situations painted in soft, dreamy palettes make Zankoul’s work visually stunning, but it is the human element that packs the punch. Figures in enigmatic scenes allow the viewer to eschew the bounds of reality. Floating in a tea cup sounds so lovely, doesn’t it?

To see more of the work of Lara Zankoul, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Daily Artsy Paintings

Posted on July 26, 2014

Surprise!! I know a few days ago I shared that I would be slowing things down a bit for a while, but then I heard about the #makegood Great.ly campaign and well, I just had to join in! If you don’t know about Great.ly, it is a super fabulous site where artists and artisans AKA Makers stock an online “studio” with work from which “tastemakers” ( bloggers like me & other influential folks ) fill their Great.ly boutiques and share the work with their readers.

Already there are lots of incredible Makers on the site and I wanted to pop in and introduce you to one of my favorites, Melbourne artist Belinda Marshall. Belinda creates these gorgeously sunny and happy abstracts teeming with color. With their bright popsicle palettes, these babies are my summer love affair!

All of these pieces are available as prints in The Trove, the Artsy Forager boutique gallery on Great.ly. Which one is your favorite? Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine!

Be sure to check out some other Makers my fellow Tastemakers are posting about today! Shout out to The Artful Desperado, Bird & Beau, Mai Autumn, & The Jealous Curator!

All images via The Artsy Forager Great.ly page.

*This post contains affiliate links. As a Great.ly Tastemaker and curator of The Trove, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from The Trove boutique gallery.

Daily Artsy Paintings Photo Realism

Posted on July 25, 2014

For the last century or so, signage has become a ubiquitous part of the American landscape. In the mid twentieth century especially, neon signage became not just advertising but an art form unto itself. These letters in light have been slowly fading from view and Seattle artist Kellie Talbot captures their spirit in her work.

In her oil paintings, Talbot crops closely into the neon letters, where we can see not only the bright paint, but the signs of age and wear. In daylight, we see not bright colored lines of light, but milky white tubes and bulbs. What I love most about Talbot’s work is the way the pieces are composed, slight glimpses of shapes that we can just make out as letters.

To see more of Kellie Talbot‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artist’s website.

Abstract Art Daily Artsy Paintings

Posted on July 24, 2014

The other day Mr. F and I hiked up a hill in nearby Trinidad to a spot looking out over the ocean. As we gazed out over the Pacific, I wondered at the way the colors in the water faded into each other in distinctive strips. Sacramento artist Micah Crandall-Bear paints color field paintings that distill the landscape into saturated lines of color.

Gentle washes of color sweep over the canvases, light filtering softly through, each piece recalling a moment in time and place, never to be experienced again. Saturated skies reflect their colored light and bathe every other hue.

To see more of Micah Crandall-Bear‘s work, please visit his website. His current solo show at Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento is up through the end of July, see it if you can!

Images via the artist’s website, the Elliott Fouts Gallery website & the EF Facebook page.

Older Posts

Newer Posts

Studio Sale 2022!
August 12, 2022
Reviewing. 2019.
December 31, 2019
Showing. Charlotte & Sacramento!
October 6, 2019
Showing. Tiny Art for ETA 26.
September 4, 2019
Showing. Anne Irwin Fine Art EAS 2019.
August 7, 2019

All posts are written by Lesley Frenz, unless otherwise stated. If you would like to repost something you see on Artsy Forager on your own blog, please provide a link back to the original post. All artwork images are the property of the individual artists, please link to this site or theirs when reposting and credit the artist appropriately. Artsy Forager contains some contextual affiliate links. An affiliate link means that I receive commission on sales of the products that are linked to in noted posts. So if you click on a link and make a purchase from an affiliate site, such as Mantle Art or Great.ly, then I may make a commission from that purchase. Those affiliate links may also be found on my Pinterest page. Artsy Forager reserves the right to delete any comments deemed as inappropriate. Play nicely, please.

Artsy Grams