artsy forager

Tag: abstract art

  • Expressive Energy Harnessed: Margaret Glew

    Expressive Energy Harnessed: Margaret Glew

    I have such a huge amount of respect and awe for artists who work in the abstract, especially gestural, expressive works like those of Toronto artist, Margaret Glew.

    Animal Dreams, oil on canvas, 72×60

    There is such an amazing amount of controlled chaos in each of Glew’s abstracts, they are fairly bursting with harnessed energy.  The scribbly lines and forms give her work a childlike essence, yet if you’ve ever tried to accomplish excellence in abstract painting, you know ( as I learned in college! ) just how difficult it can be.

    Untitled, oil on canvas, 48×48

    After all, Picasso himself once said “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

    Pitter Patter, oil on canvas, 60×60

    What may seem to a novice eye like mere scribbles and marks are placed yes, perhaps intuitively but deliberately.  For Glew, each shape and line is a kind of shorthand.  She’s created her own visual language, telling her stories in texture, color and gestural expression.

    Untitled, oil on canvas, 48×54
    Untitled, oil on canvas, 48×48

    And it is a story I could read over and over again!  To see more of Margaret Glew’s work, please visit her website.  Many thanks to Artsy Forager favorite artist Christina Foard for the introduction to Margaret’s work!

    Featured image is Pitter Patter ( detail ).  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Art to Inspiration: Pakayla Biehn

    Art to Inspiration: Pakayla Biehn

    This blogging world is chock full of creative and inspiring people.  I am so excited to participate in the collaborative blogging project, Art to Inspiration!  Art to Inspiration is a monthly collaborative blogging project in which bloggers around the world post how the same piece of artwork has inspired them on the first Wednesday of every month.  So let’s get started!

    I was pumped when I saw the artwork inspiration for April, 2 Years, 264 Days and This Morning by Pakayla Biehn, an artist whose work I love and recently featured!

    2 Years, 264 Days and This Morning, oil on canvas, 26×18

    In my gallery days, one of my absolute favorite tasks was to help curate, design and plan how the work was hung in the gallery.  Laying work out, figuring out how pieces relate and the best way for them to work together visually.  So for my first Art to Inspiration, it felt natural to curate my own gallery of work inspired by Biehn’s piece.

    RIGHTTORETURN(DONAUDELTA) by Markus Linnebrink, c-print, epoxy resin on wood, 60×72
    Floral Study by Kristina Bailey, acrylic on canvas, 60×48 ( via Gregg Irby Fine Art )
    The Unending Amends We’ve Made ( Imperishable Wreath ) by Lauren Clay, Acrylic on cut paper,papier-mâché, wire, wood, 30x25x6
    Z.T. by Wil Jansen, oil on canvas, 40x30cm
    The Things We Miss by Lissy Laricchia
    Eggplant by Michelle Armas, acrylic on canvas, 30×40 ( via Gregg Irby Fine Art )

    Pakayla Biehn

    Markus Linnenbrink | Kristina Bailey | Lauren Clay | Wil Jansen | Lissy Laricchia | Michelle Armas  

    Visit the artists’ websites, linked above, for more inspiration!

    You can find more information on Art to Inspiration here and if you would like to participate in the next Art to Inspiration, just fill out this form! Follow me and all the other Art to Inspiration bloggers on Twitter by subscribing here.  Let the inspiring begin! 
    All images are via the artists’ websites unless otherwise noted.

  • Interconnected Brilliance: Hadley Holliday

    Interconnected Brilliance: Hadley Holliday

    I am not a knitter.  Nor do I crochet, weave or macrame.  I tried crocheting in my middle school Home Economics class and, let’s just say, I didn’t get it.    And all that knit 1, purl 2 stuff?  Just sounds like math to me, which is to be avoided at all costs.  But I love woven textiles.  There is such an innate beauty in the patterns and texture create.  Los Angeles artist Hadley Holliday’s exhibtion, Warp and Weft at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery is weaving together a caliedoscope of color and pattern.

    Sun Vault, acrylic on canvas, 63×63 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )

    She is exploring the worlds of space and depth and the illusions created by overlapping shapes and patterns.  There is a fantastic sense of movement and prismatic expanse to her paintings.

    Blissed Out, acrylic on canvas, 54×60 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )
    Zero Hour, acrylic on canvas, 36×42 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )

    They seem optically illusional in nature, yet there is also an organic quality to them, reminding me of the intersecting lines and orderly nature of a spider’s web.

    Sunshine Day and Night, acrylic on canvas, 54×60 ( via Taylor De Cordoba Gallery )

    To see more of Hadley Holliday’s work, please visit her website.  If you happen to be in Southern California, you can see Warp and Weft at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery only until this Saturday, April 7th.  So get moving and see it this week!

    Featured image is Sun Vault ( detail ), acrylic on canvas, 63×63.  All images are via the Taylor De Cordoba website.

  • Artsy Design: People In Stained Glass Houses

    Artsy Design: People In Stained Glass Houses

    Does this sculpture by New York artist Tom Fruin remind you of anyone?

    Kolonihavehus by Tom Fruin ( via Design Boom )

    I’ll give you a hint.. 

    Jackson Series 7 by Karen Schnepf

    Do you see it?  Love how these very different works compliment each other!  Read more about Karen Schepf’s work here and Tom Fruin’s workhereand on Design Boom.

    Featured images is Light & Shadow Play, Kolonihavehus, photographed by Nuno Neto.  Images are via the artists’ websites unless otherwise noted.


  • So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades: Karen Schnepf

    So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades: Karen Schnepf

    Being a hyper visual person, I remember imagery like nobody’s business.  Names, however, often escape me.  So I was very excited when on Pinterest last week, I spotted the Omaha artist Karen Schnepf.  We’d carried a few of her paintings while I was working in a gallery, purchased through an art rep, so we’d never had any contact with her personally.  I was so delighted to find her again so that I could share her striking, color saturated work with you!

    Painting-026, Petals Series

    Let me just say that none of these photos do Karen’s work justice.  Her canvases are super high-gloss, making it nearly impossible to get accurate photos.  But that deep shine is one of the things that I love about her work.

    Painting-031, Petals Series

    The glossy surface enhances the brilliance of her saturated color palette.  Her use of such vibrant color tempered with black and lustrous surfaces call to mind modern stained glass on canvas.  The color seems to virtually ooze across the canvas.  I want to swim in it!

    Remains of the Day 1, 18×24
    Tropical Vacation

    To see more of Karen Schnepf’s work, please visit her website.

    Featured image is Painting-033.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Saturated Fluidity: Anne Harper

    Saturated Fluidity: Anne Harper

    I am craving color.  It seems like spring has sprung everywhere except where we are.  Don’t get me wrong, I love winter, but after almost 4 months without flowers, I am ready for blooming!  So it should be no surprise that this week I’m drawn to the work of Anne Harper.

    Persuasion #2, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

    Spring is full of contrasts– bright flowers glowing against skies wet with rain.  Harpers work parallels for me the loveliness of an urban spring.  Her liquid color reminds me of my first spring visit to Seattle, where the cherry blossoms littered wet sidewalks.  It seemed magical. ( Probably didn’t hurt that I was newly in love, both with the city and my then soon-to-be hubby! )

    Persuasion #4, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

    Then, the rainy days of spring gradually dry, giving way to the glorious glow of summer.  I am ready.  Are you?

    Spontaneous #2, acrylic and mixed media on canvas
    Persuasion #7, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

    To see more of Anne Harper’s work, please visit her website.  In addition to being a fantastic painter, she is also a talented musician!  You can listen to her tunes here.

    This artist found via Saatchi Online.

    Featured image is a detail of Persuasion #4.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Friday Faves: Branching Out

    Friday Faves: Branching Out

    Hubby and I are treehuggers.  Not in a holier-than-thou, I-always-recycle, never-ever-use-plastic-grocery-bags kind of way ( though there may be a little of that ), we’re more the Babe!-did-you-see-the-size-of-that-tree, doesn’t-that-tree-trunk-look-like-the-Venus-de-Willendorf, oh-I-want-to-hug-it variety.  As the days get longer and the weather gets slightly warmer, we’re beginning to plan lots of treks into the woods to do some tree-gazing.  One of our favorite things to do is lay on the ground and look up at the trees and their branches.  So to get you in the mood for perhaps a little tree-gazing of your own, here are a few artists who share our woodsy love!

    Rumis Ladder by Adam Shaw, oil on canvas, 64×70
    Rusted by Liz Ruest, digital collage, prints available
    All Things Great and Small by Angie Renfro, oil on panel, 30×24
    Eastern Redbud II by Susan Goldsmith, white gold leaf with pigment print, oil pastel, oil paint & resin on panel, 36×36

    Adam Shaw | Liz Ruest | Angie Renfro |Susan Goldsmith 

    So how about you, Artsies?  Any tree-hugging plans this weekend? 🙂

    Featured image is The Truth Calls Us Into Being by Adam Shaw, oil on canvas, 70×50.  All images are via the artist’s websites, linked above.

  • Artsy Dwelling: Does Jill Ricci Live Here?

    Doesn’t this room bear a striking resemblance to Jill Ricci’s work?  It’s as if her mixed media has jumped off the canvas to cover every surface.  And I love it!

    Photo by Emily Gilbert, The Brooklyn Home Co featured in the Fall 2010 issue of The New York Observer HOME
    Miss RI by Jill Ricci, mixed media on canvas, 30×48
  • Contemporary Retellings: Claudia Smalley

    Contemporary Retellings: Claudia Smalley

    One of the things I loved about studying art history in college was learning the backstories and narratives behind works that seem, on the surface, simply decorative.  Throughout the history of art, still lifes have been used to convey deeper meaning through the symbolism of the objects they portray. In her Peek series, Chicago artist Claudia Smalley looks past the narrative to distill the still life into its simplest values– color, shape and light.

    Still Life I, oil on canvas, 48×36

    Smalley successfully interprets what some might consider a mundane subject ( not me, though! ) into exciting, contemporary abstract interpretations full of movement and texture.

    Still Life 6, oil on canvas, 48×36

    She captures the essence of the genre in terms of composition ( what every art student studies still lifes for! ) and that glorious chiaroscuro employed by masters of the staged vignettes.  Her canvases move and glow with the same delicate rhythm.

    Still Life 5, oil on canvas, 20×24

    While I was in painting studio in college, I remember my favorite instructor telling us to squint in order to see how strong our light and composition was.  Smalley’s Peeks extracts the strongest elements of detailed compositions and redefines them in an equally elegant, though much more modern way.

    Fruit 3, oil on canvas, 24×36
    Still Life 20, oil on canvas, 36×24

    To see more of Claudia Smalley’s interpretational work, please visit her website.

    Featured image is Still Life 2, oil on canvas, 36×24.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Jill Ricci

    Special treat for your Monday!  Due to Escape Into Life website maintenance, my EIL feature ran early yesterday.  Head over and enjoy!

    Love at first sight.  That’s what I felt for Jill Ricci’s work. The colors!  The texture!  The graphics!  I love it all and am sharing it over on Escape Into Life today.  Click on the link below to fall in love!

    Hocus Pocus, mixed media on canvas, 20×30

    Jill Ricci on Escape Into Life