artsy forager

Tag: Landscapes

  • Chasing the Light: Zaria Forman

    Do you ever think about what kind of legacy you will leave behind?  I’m not thinking of material wealth or possessions, but the impact that your life will have had on the people who’ve known you?  It’s a sobering thought, to be sure, to contemplate what your impact will have been.  Brooklyn artist Zaria Forman ‘s series Chasing the Light is the culmination of the impact of a mother’s dream on her daughter.

    Zaria Forman | artsy forager #art #artists #landscape #greenland Zaria Forman | artsy forager #art #artists #landscape #greenland Zaria Forman | artsy forager #art #artists #landscape #greenland Zaria Forman | artsy forager #art #artists #landscape #greenland Zaria Forman | artsy forager #art #artists #landscape #greenland

    The artist’s mother originally conceived the idea to lead an art expedition up the Northwest Coast of Greenland, the only other expedition here of this kind not done since 1869.  Illness overtook her mother and the daughter kept her promise to carry on with the expedition.

    The hyperreal pastel drawings of the disappearing glacial landscape remind us that we are continually impacting the world around us, whether we are aware of it or not.  These monumental mountains of ice are slowly melting away, perhaps forever.  We are losing a loved one, gradually, reluctantly.

    To see more of Zaria Forman‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images via the artist’s website.

  • Nature, Uncontrolled: Jeremy Miranda

    Nature, Uncontrolled: Jeremy Miranda

    The sea or the snow?  The sea or the snow.  Mr. F and I go back and forth on this question frequently.  While spending the winter in Idaho, we decided on snow.  But now that we are on the Northern California coast, I wonder, will the tides turn back toward the sea?  There is something wild and mysterious about the ocean, and Massachusetts artist Jeremy Miranda captures the struggle by man to understand and control the uncontrollable character of nature.

    Jeremy Miranda | artsy forager #art #paintings Jeremy Miranda | artsy forager #art #paintings Jeremy Miranda | artsy forager #art #paintings Jeremy Miranda | artsy forager #art #paintings Jeremy Miranda | artsy forager #art #paintings

    We move in to the wild places, we build our houses and cultivate lawns and gardens, we want to be surrounded by nature’s beauty yet when the elements go about their way with no regard for us, we resent it.  We try to control it.  To bend and shift nature’s way to meet our own needs instead of leaving it to its own perfectly evolved devices.  Miranda’s work captures that intrusion of man on wild, not only the destruction and encapsulation that ensues, but the way that nature reclaims what is hers when man moves on.

    To see more of Jeremy Miranda‘s work, please visit his website.

    All images via the artist’s website.

  • A Sense of Place: Stacey Rees

    A Sense of Place: Stacey Rees

    Every place has its own personality, just like any person.  Some places are a bit dark and brooding, while others are so sunny and bright they are almost annoying.. Victoria artist Stacey Rees captures the sensual and spiritual atmosphere of her surroundings in her paintings and illustrations.

    Stacey Rees Stacey Rees Stacey Rees Stacey Rees Stacey Rees

    I always find it interesting to compare the feel and palette of the different places we visit.  Between some, there are only minor differences, but in other spots, it feels like being in an entirely different world.  And in those places, often times our personalities may absorb some of that difference, too.  As in Rees’ work, in which there is a wonderful sense of not just earthly but spiritual atmosphere, we can take on not just the physicality of a place but some places get into our souls– for better or worse.

    Mr. Forager & I have visited a few soul-filling places.  Do you have any place you’ve visited that had a profound effect on you?

    To see more of Stacey Rees‘ work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Sparkle in the Decay: Jared Small

    Sparkle in the Decay: Jared Small

    Mr. Forager and I have been talking a lot lately about our eventual home.  We have no idea where exactly it will be located, but we keep honing in on what our wants and needs will be.  While we love the idea of building our own from scratch, so that we suit it precisely to our needs and desires, I can’t help but keep going back to the idea of reviving a home that has lost its luster.  These paintings by Memphis artist Jared Small celebrate the past lives of decaying structures and perhaps give a nod to the potential sparkle still to be found.

    Burnout by Jared Small Jared Small Jared Small Jared Small Magnolia by Jared Small

    Small uses light to great effect in showcasing these structures, using it to add emotionality and personality to each composition.  In some, the houses recede into the darkness, shy and retreating, like a scared child hiding behind his mother’s legs.  But for others, the houses are lit up and gleaming through the darkness like a beacon, letting us know that although the outside may seem run down, there is still hope and joy to be found therein.

    To see more of Jared Small‘s work, please visit his website.  If you happen to be in the Memphis area, you can see his work in person at the David Lusk Gallery.

    Images via the artist’s website and the David Lusk Gallery website.  Artist found via David Lusk Gallery.

  • Tender Highways: Grant Haffner

    Tender Highways: Grant Haffner

    Many of you may be on the road as I type this, on your way home after much holiday merriment.  Isn’t it interesting how much different the landscape looks from a car?  I remember being fascinated by the blur of grass and trees seen from my backseat window as a girl.  Even when half asleep after a long day, my young mind could still tell just by the timing and turning of corners when we were almost home.  Long Island artist Grant Haffner captures his love of his own hometown roads in his tender, colorful paintings.

    Grant Haffner

    Longbeach by Grant Haffner Entry 3 by Grant Haffner Gerard Drive by Grant Haffner Bay by Grant Haffner

    In these acrylic paintings, Haffner beautifully captures that feeling of being on the road, the whizzing blur of color, the towering power lines, the never-ending expanse of sky.  Sure, air travel may be faster, but a road trip offers so much more in the way of adventure and discovery.  There could always be some hidden potential just around the next corner, just over that hill.  Haffner’s paintings capture that sense of excitement and anticipation and their lack of cars and people give the viewer a through-the-windshield feeling of being that sole traveler indulging their wanderlust.

    To see more of Grant Haffner‘s work, please visit his website.  Our journey from Florida to Washington three years ago is among my best road trip memories.  Do you have a favorite?

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

  • Spoiled Earth: Brooks Salzwedel

    Spoiled Earth: Brooks Salzwedel

    In our travels, Mr. Forager and I have been very fortunate to have seen some amazingly beautiful places.  Unfortunately, for many, the opportunity to see unspoiled beauty is rare.  Our landscapes are filled with strip malls and fast food joints, rather than untamed forests.  In his resin cast work, Los Angeles artist Brooks Kalzwedel examines this dichotomy of urban development versus wilderness.

    Untitled #1 by Brooks Salzwedel Reclaimed Tipping Tower by Brooks Salzwedel Tendril by Brooks Salzwedel Tangled and Half Nature, Half Power by Brooks Salzwedel The Dinosaur and the Statuette by Brooks Salzwedel

    In these heavily layered pieces, Salzwedel’s landscapes are disrupted by electrical towers and sprawl, almost seeming to be choked by encroaching development.  The mechanical elements look to be nearly parasitical, especially in Tendrils ( 3rd down ), they seem to have incorporated themselves as a part of the root.

    Such beauty, yet so filled with sadness for what is lost.  If you’d like to see more of Brooks Salzwedel‘s work, please visit his website.  If you’re in the San Fran/Oakland area, you can see his work being shown with Mayumi Hamanaka in the two person exhibition, Temporal Void at Johansson Projects in Oakland until January 16, 2014.

    PS–Thanks to The Jealous Curator for reminding me of Brooks’ work!

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Under the Stars: Vanessa Marsh

    Under the Stars: Vanessa Marsh

    Mr. Forager and I have been camping our way down the West Coast this week.  While camping isn’t always the most comfortable way to bed down, there is something about sleeping under the stars, hearing the wind, the crickets and such that can put us more in touch with the world above and around.  In her photogram based work, Oakland artist Vanessa Marsh  crafts images that remind us of the wonder starlight provides.

    Landscape #9 by Vanessa Marsh Landscape #8 by Vanessa Marsh Landscape #4 by Vanessa Marsh Landscape #12 by Vanessa Marsh Landscape #19 by Vanessa Marsh

    In shades of grey, Marsh creates scenes filled with shadows and silhouettes, the simple way we see at night, breaking objects down to their most fundamental forms.  Though the shapes may feel a bit dark and haunting, skies filled with stars beckon a welcoming hello.  In focusing on the skies above, we’re able to shift away from the darkness surrounding us and turn our faces toward the lights twinkling down.  How is it possible to look up into a star-filled night sky and not feel a twinge of hope and possibility?  It never fails to fill me with both.

    To see more of the work of Vanessa Marsh, please visit her website and Facebook page.

    All images via the artist’s website.  Artist found via Little Paper Planes.

  • Cathartic Nature: Erin Lynn Welsh

    Cathartic Nature: Erin Lynn Welsh

    Different minds require different types of rest and healing.  Some, like mine, and I suspect that of Brooklyn artist Erin Lynn Welsh, require some quiet time in the big beautiful outdoors to rejuvenate and recoup.

    Erin Lynn Welsh Erin Lynn Welsh Erin Lynn Welsh Erin Lynn Welsh Erin Lynn Welsh

    Being outside, away from the distractions of life, gives our minds time to ponder and wander.  Its a fantastic way to work through a particular problem or emotional energy that needs to get out.  In Erin Lynn Welsh’s work, there’s an emotionality to these paintings, as if the artist has molded together the catharsis of being in nature and the act of painting.  Sweeping and staccatoed brushstrokes seem to belie a mood of working through something inside while depicting each scene.

    If you’d like to see more of Erin Lynn Welsh‘s work, please visit her page at Uprise Art.  And if you recognize the titles of a few of her paintings, then you love Florence + The Machine as much as I do. 😉

    All images via the artist’s website.

  • Translucent Mountains: Ellie Malin

    Translucent Mountains: Ellie Malin

    The snow is beginning to fall in the upper elevations on the Olympic Mountains here in Washington.  Something about the steep crags covered in snow melts my heart and captures by soul every time I see it.  I love that Mr. F always points it out to me, when the snow begins to appear, to make sure I don’t miss it.  In her woodblock prints, Melbourne artist Ellie Malin reduces the mountainous landscape to their most simple pointed forms.

    Radiant Mountain IV by Ellie Malin Sundown Landscape I & II by Ellie Malin Reflective Landscape by Ellie Malin Moving Mountain, Steep Slope I & II and Translucent Landscape by Ellie Malin Sundown Landscape by Ellie Malin

    The way she uses opaque and translucent shapes to echo the varying planes of the mountains captures the mysterious layers perfectly.  These prints make me want to hike through each canyon and over each peak!  There is always something about breaking forms down to their very simplest shapes and planes that I find so satisfying.

    To see more of Ellie Malin‘s work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Chemistry of Place: Matthew Brandt

    Chemistry of Place: Matthew Brandt

    With each place Mr. Forager & I travel to, we always come away with corresponding memories and associations.  Maybe with the weather, maybe with the food of the region, maybe with the experiences we had.  The work of Los Angeles artist Matthew Brandt takes the idea of associations of place and actually physically informs his work.

    Taste Tests in Color, Laffy Taffy 3 by Matthew Brandt

    [ taste tests in color, laffy taffy 3, blue raspberry, banana and grape laffy taffy multi-layered silkscreen on paper, 30×40 ]

    Dexter Lake, OR 3 by Matthew Brandt

    [ dexter lake, or 3, c-print soaked in dexter lake water, 40×30 ]

    120821716891 by Matthew Brandt

    [ 120821716891, bubbilicious blueberry gum on paper, 40×30 ]

    Ketchup and Mustard by Matthew Brandt

    [ ketchup and mustard, ketchup and mustard multi-layered silkscreen on paper, 40×30 ]

    Mary's Lake, MT 2 by Matthew Brandt

    [ marys lake, mt 2, c-print soaked in marys lake water, 105×72 ]

    In his photographs of iconic American landscapes and places, the artist pays homage to the locale’s meaning sometimes by soaking his prints in the water of the scene in question, or by using unusual yet culturally meaningful printing mediums.  For instance, in his Houses series, photographs of typical American homes are printed with flavored gum, perhaps a nod to the children who grew up there and the memories the buildings carry.  For the Taste Test series, the artist printed quintessentially American landscape scenes with typical American condiments like mustard and ketchup or processed sweets like Laffy Taffy and Jello.

    The resulting prints become not just images of idealized places, but those places have somehow become a part of the artwork itself.  Just as each place becomes a part of those who have visited it.

    If you’d like to see more of Matthew Brandt‘s work, please visit his website.  Seriously, so much more amazing work to see there!

    All images are via the artist’s website.