artsy forager

Tag: Artists

  • Bringing Spring Flowers: The Latest From Lily Stockman

    Bringing Spring Flowers: The Latest From Lily Stockman

    As much as I LOVE winter and though we still have snow on the ground here in Coeur d’Alene, I find my heart longing for spring.  Maybe it is because, since moving from Florida and experiencing my first real winter, it’s March and I feel ready to trade my fur-lined boots for sandals. Or perhaps it is because since visiting George in Seattle two years ago, I know how utterly beautiful a Northwest spring can be!  And we’ve heard that as gorgeous as these snow-covered mountains are, Coeur d’Alene is the place to be in the warmer months.

    My anticipation for spring is likely pretty obvious in this week’s posts.. The latest series from Brooklyn artist, Lily Stockman have me longing to grab a few pencils and a sketch book and take off into the woods to see what wildflowers I can find.

    Garden Club, acrylic on unstretched canvas, 156×96

    Following in the footsteps of her plant-loving family and Victorian-era amateur botanists, Stockman examines her own existence in the natural world. The works are, at times, modern interpretations of botanical illustrations whose style has been made familiar by naturalist artists such as Ernst Haeckel.  Others, much more loose and abstracted, remind us more of the feeling of being connected to the natural world– its brightness and simplicity.

    Brooklandia, oil on panel, 24×18

    She is examining the natural Renaissance we seem to find ourselves in– the reaction perhaps to the pervasiveness of technology.  We are planting gardens in our backyards, enjoying farm-to-table dinners and find ourselves yearning for engagement with nature like never before.

    The Way We Remember It, oil on canvas, 60×72

    Advances in technology have led us far, far away from living our daily lives entwined with the natural world.  Instead of being essential to survival, our relationship with nature has changed to one of pleasure and preservation.  When we spend time cultivating that relationship, it is not just helping preserve the earth, but to preserve our own natural souls.

    Concord Silhouette, oil on canvas, 60×72
    Clover for Ajay ( Jaipur at Night ), oil on canvas, 72×60

    To see more of Lily Stockman’s work, please visit her website.  Her work can be seen in the NYU 1st Year MFA Show at The Commons Gallery in New York, opening tomorrow March 7, 2012.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Delicate Double-takes: Pakayla Biehn

    Delicate Double-takes: Pakayla Biehn

    Have you ever been so enraptured by the natural beauty surrounding you that you feel as if the wonder of it actually becomes a part of you?  I have suspect Pakayla Biehn has encountered this feeling.  Her dreamlike works tell me she is one who also has visions of laying in a field of flowers and floating down sparkling streams.

    Ten Thousand Times, oil and acrylic, 28×18

    Biehn’s work has such a quiet, poetic beauty.  To look upon them seems as if we are encountering a hidden, magical place, filled with fairies and wood nymphs.

    All the Time I Was Making This I Was Thinking of You, oil and acrylic on canvas, 36×24

    They remind me of the enchantment of the most beautiful places I’ve seen and of places from my dreams I have yet to visit.

    People in Love, oil and acrylic on canvas, 22×14
    Hope There’s Someone, oil and acrylic on canvas, 28×19

    To see more of Pakayla Biehn’s work, please visit her website.  If you’re in Cali, you can see her work at Gallery Hijinks in San Francisco or at Thinkspace Gallery in LA.

    Spring is almost upon us, artsies!  Did you lose yourself in a lovely place over the weekend?

    Featured image is The Study of the Structure of Subversive Existence, oil & acrylic on canvas, 28×20.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Friday Faves: Taste the Rainbow

    Friday Faves: Taste the Rainbow

    Mmmm.. Skittles.  Now that I have you craving some multi-colored chewy candies, let’s talk rainbows.  The ubiquitous symbol of hope seems to be everywhere these days.  Artists are embracing prismatic colors and shapes like mad!  Check out a few examples I found..

    Sarah Applebaum
    Lisa Congdon
    Christopher Derek Bruno
    Marco Puccini ( via Design Milk )
    Mark Warren Jacques

    Be sure to check out the artists’ websites to see more rainbow-hued wonders!

    Sarah Applebaum 

    Lisa Congdon

    Christopher Derek Bruno  

    Marco Puccini

    Mark Warren Jacques 

    All images are via the artist’s websites, unless otherwise noted.

  • Balancing Act: Candice Smith Corby

    Balancing Act: Candice Smith Corby

    Many of you know that my hubby & I are living a bit of a vagabond life.  My other half is working as a medical traveler, so since May 2011, we’ve moved across the good ol’ USofA from Florida to the Northwest, living in a new town every 13 weeks.  So these days, we’re traveling light.  Everything live with fits into the back of our mid-size SUV and a 4’x8′ UHaul trailer.  All our other belonging are stored in a 10’x10′ storage unit in Jacksonville.  The rest is gone.  In preparation for this move and change in lifestyle, we sold or gave away all of our furniture except for a few sentimental pieces of mine.  When I first saw these works on paper by Massachusetts artist Candice Smith Corby, they resonated with this slightly displaced soul.

    Madge's Fox Den, gouache & watercolor on paper ( via Lost at E Minor )

    I am no stranger to the competing feelings of freedom and loss that come from purging your life of unnecessary stuff.  In our society, our possessions define us in so many ways.  They demonstrate to the world, our tastes, our values, our experiences.  The things that we live with become a part of our memories, so to be separated from them may result in a disconnect with our past.  Of course, that could be viewed as positive or negative..

    You'll Be A…, I'll Be a Bear, gouache on wallpaper

    While I do often dearly miss some of my lovely things ( especially when living in some furnished rentals! ), there is also an incredible sense of liberty that comes with knowing that we can live ( almost ) anywhere.  We no longer have the mortgage and maintenance of owning a home filled with rooms and stuff we rarely use.

    My Worries Are Behind Me, acrylic, watercolor & gouache on paper, 36×80

    Smith Corby’s works speak to that overwhelming sense of being possessed by our possessions.  How many of us have gone into large amounts of debt just to have the homes of our dreams?  Oh, how difficult it can be when we insist on holding on, when what we really need is to just let go.

    Brooding Mood, screenprint, 22×30
    Repossessed, gouache & watercolor on paper ( via Lost at E Minor )

    So have I made you want to give away all your worldly goods? 😉  Maybe just a spring cleaning is in the cards.. To see more of Candice Smith Corby’s work, please visit her website.

    This artist found via Lost at E Minor.

    Featured image is Bunny Love by Candice Smith Corby.  All images are via the artist’s website unless otherwise noted.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Elly MacKay

    Like attracts like.  So it’s no surprise that many times, I find great artists by way of other great artists!  Today’s Escape Into Life artist, Elly MacKay is just such a case– thanks to Dolan Geiman for introducing me to such lovely work!

    They Tied Their Hopes to a String by Elly MacKay

    Elly MacKay on Escape Into Life

  • The Space Between: Erin McIntosh

    The Space Between: Erin McIntosh

    The world today is so loud and pushy.  We are visually bombarded at all times with color, typography, imagery, you name it.  It begins to weigh us down unknowingly.  Atlanta artist Erin McIntosh’s recent work has a quiet, delicate quality, the perfect antidote for a noisy world.

    Watercolor 30, watercolor on paper, 9×9 image on 11×14 paper

    In her work, Erin is seeking to explore the silence to be discovered among the cacophony.  Her intuitive process and use of water-based media give her works on paper a soft, gossamer-like quality.

    Watercolor 32, watercolor on paper, 9×9 image on 11×14 paper

    Diaphanous shapes and translucent forms float freely, randomly just as our thoughts as we lie in the grass and daydream.  We’re wafted away through the chaos and into the quiet stillness.

    Watercolor 31, watercolor on paper, 9×9 image on 11×14 paper
    Untitled, watercolor on paper ( via Gregg Irby Fine Art )

    Ah.. I feel so peaceful now!  To see more of Erin McIntosh’s work and enjoy a bit of her own brand of artsy stillness, please visit her website.  I also highly recommend a visit to the website of her representing gallery, Gregg Irby Fine Art.  If you happen to be in Atlanta, drop by and see these lovelies in person!

    And, as a wonderful little treat, here’s a video of the artist herself, telling you a bit about her work–

    Erin McIntosh Interview

    Featured image is Capsule Series #9, watercolor on paper, 8×8 ( via the artist’s Etsy shop ).  All other images are via Gregg Irby Fine Art.

  • Phantasmic Illusions: Catrin Welz-Stein

    Phantasmic Illusions: Catrin Welz-Stein

    I’ve heard that some people only dream in black and white.  My dreams are always in color, but muted, like faded photographs or old home movies.  It seems that German born artist Catrin Welz-Stein has been somehow seeing into my dreams.  Her digital collages are strikingly similar to the palette and imagery of my dreams..

    Her Secret, digital collage

    So perhaps the imagery isn’t exactly like the images of my own slumber, but the atmosphere is the same.  And there are always animals.  And lots of flying.  And sometimes flying animals.

    Whale Watching, digital collage

    The artist,while working as a graphic designer, experimented with mixed media and collage, eventually moving to digital imagery and her current surreal style.  Using license-free, non-copyrighted images, photos and illustrations, Catrin breaks apart the original images and transforms them into her own creations.

    Precious Flight, digital collage

    The images she creates are at times ethereal, melancholy, disturbing, reassuring and sweet.  They truly run a gamut of emotions.  Just as our dreams do.

    After The Hunt, digital collage
    The View, digital collage

    To see more of Catrin Welz-Stein’s work, please visit her page on ImageKind.  She has three fabulous galleries of imagery, prints available of all– I’m certain you find one 0r ten to love!

    Featured image is Sisters, digital collage.  All images are via the artist’s ImageKind site.

  • Friday Faves: Bookworms

    Friday Faves: Bookworms

    I have a long, ongoing love affair.  With books.  I blame my grandparents, who were avid readers and every night spent with them was ended curled up in my grandmother’s lap listening to her read.  Growing up, books were a favorite escape, summers were often spent with my nose buried in story after story.  I came very close to pursuing a degree in literature rather than art history ( I was obviously never destined to be rich! ).  But one of the best things about studying art history was all the stories.  The best of both worlds.  Here are some artists who seem as obsessed with books as I am!

    It's Story Time IV by Christopher Stott
    Come With Me by Na Zhao ( via ArtLink )
    Blonde But Not Forgotten by Harland Miller
    Unicorn by Gala Bent
    Books by Holly Farrell

    Be sure to check out these artist’s websites below.  So I just finished a Frida Kahlo biography.  Any artsy reads you would recommend?

    Christopher Stott 

    Na Zhao on Artlink 

    Harland Miller 

    Gala Bent 

    Holly Farrell 

    Featured image is Off To School II by Christopher Stott, oil on canvas, 40×20.  All images are via the artist’s websites unless otherwise noted.

  • Color Harvest: Orange & Indigo

    Color Harvest: Orange & Indigo

    While digging through my Pinterest inspiration boards, planning my features for next week, I noticed a color trend in a few of my pins.  It’s funny how our minds gravitate toward certain palettes some days, isn’t it?  Apparently, my eyes are loving the combination of orange and indigo these days!  I thought you might enjoy a few examples from my boards..

    Christina Otero ( via My Modern Metropolis )
    Michael Rice
    Neil Wax ( via Skidmore Contemporary )
    Frances Seward
    Henry Domke
    Christopher St. Leger

    Any color combos you’re enamored with these days?  Guess this native Florida girl can’t escape the Orange & Blue!

    Featured image by Stephanie Paige.  Sources can be found by clicking on each image.

  • Kaleidoscope Confetti: Kymm Swank

    Kaleidoscope Confetti: Kymm Swank

    When I was taking studio classes in college, I had a thing for geometric shapes.  Collage project involving painted pieces of paper?  Mine were scenes made out of painted paper squares.  Once I mastered drawing the figure realistically, I had a complete blast simplifying my figures into geometric shapes and planes.  It seems that Los Angeles artist Kymm Swank has the same fondness for bright color and simple shapes, putting them together in a way that is downright intoxicating.

    Structure2, oil on canvas, 36×36

    I am in love with the way Swank is using common linear shapes to create complex compositions full of light and movement.

    City Structure VI, oil on canvas, 72×60

    There are any number of scenes these works may represent.. a cityscape at sunset, sunspots reflecting off a waterfall, looking down on busy city traffic, boats crowded together in a busy port, waves crashing upon a shore..

    Juke VIII, oil & resin on canvas, 18×18

    How about we change things up a little?  Instead of me telling you what I see, I’d love to hear what you see!

    City Structure VII, oil on canvas, 72×60

    Be sure to head over to Kymm Swank’s website to check out the rest of her portfolio.  Share your thoughts on what you see in her work in the comments below.  No Rorschach-like psycho analyzing of your vision, I promise! 😉

    Featured image is Structure 14, oil on canvas, 72×36.  All images are via the artist’s website.