Happy Memorial Day to all the US Artsies! Thank you to all who have served so that we may enjoy each day in freedom. Be back in full Artsy mode tomorrow!
artwork by Holly Farrell, May Featured Artist
Image found here.
Tag: Holly Farrell
-
Live the Artsy: Holly Farrell
Post WWII prosperity ushered in a turning point in the world of advertising and manufactured goods– packaging and design were no longer concerned mainly with function, even the most mundane of objects were created with an appealing aesthetic. This month’s Featured Artist Holly Farrell celebrates the beauty in these old objects, breathing new and fresh life into designs of the past.
How would it be to live out Farrell’s aesthetic?
art | found here
interior a | found here
interior b | found here
With a bright and light modern palette, accentuated with touches of muted color. Pops of graphic, retro pattern along with sleek metals recall the dawn of the industrial age, with those colors and a few carefully placed wood tones keeping the view warm and fun. I can’t decide which of these looks I like best! Which is your fave?
To see more of Holly Farrell’s work, please visit her website. The above painting, Soap, is a 10×24 acrylic and oil on masonite, available through Holly’s studio.
Image sources linked above.
-
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.
-
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?
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.
-
Loneliness and Loveliness: Holly Farrell
I have a weakness for objects with a past. Everyday pieces from days gone by hold the untold stories of a person, a family , a home. Toronto artist Holly Farrell’s paintings of vintage objects explore this sense of nostalgia for days gone by, while also having a strong, strikingly melancholy visual impact.
Bowl ( stripe ), acrylic and oil on masonite, 14×18 The self-taught artist isolates her subjects, often with a muted, neutral background, taking a bit out of their normal context, emphasizing their design and calling our attention to their forsaken state.
Couch, acrylic and oil on masonite, 28×18 These are works that are wryly reverent. Remember that hideous sofa in Grandma’s living room? It is now immortalized on canvas, forlornly longing for the days when grandchildren used to bounce and play on it’s floral-covered cushions.
Colorful Fire King mugs, which once warmed young hands and tummies with hot cocoa are now another kind of “mug shot”… snapshot compositions feel like they could be the sales photos for an eBay or Craigslist ad. Going once, going twice.. sold.
Fire King Mugs, acrylic and oil on board, 12 @ 7×8 each Ken and Barbie dolls, once beloved playtime companions now seem vacant and distant.
Scuba Ken & Barbie, acrylic and oil on board Though there can be a definite sadness surrounding some of Holly Farrell’s work, it is tempered with charm and joy. Just as our memories should be. To see more of Holly’s work, please visit her website. On her website, not only will you find more deliciously intriguing work, but also a list of galleries in the US and Canada where you can see them live and in person.
** Thank you to The Jealous Curator for the introduction to Holly Farrell’s work via her post on SF Girl By Bay!
Featured image is Books, acrylic and oil on masonite. All images are via the artist’s website.
