artsy forager

Tag: Landscapes

  • Finding Place: Robert Josiah Bingaman

    Finding Place: Robert Josiah Bingaman

    As you know, dear Artsies, our time in the California high desert is quickly coming to an end.  We are this very moment packing and preparing to leave Joshua Tree on Saturday.  As much as we’ve been looking forward to this day, anytime you make yourself at home anywhere, leaving can be the slightest bit bittersweet.  In each new spot, we find ourselves searching, contemplating.. could we live here permanently?  Could this be home?  Very often we find the answer to that question rather quickly, but it doesn’t diminish how unique we find each place and how each one carries its own memories.  The work of Kansas City artist Robert Josiah Bingaman resonates with the recollections of moments we find with each place we visit.

    Texas by Robert Josiah Bingaman
    Texas, acrylic on linen, 102×61
    I-70 Drive-In by Robert Josiah Bingaman
    I-70 Drive-In, acrylic on birch, 24×18

    Bingaman captures the magic of those flashes in time, when we become engrossed in the scene in which we find ourselves, instead of thinking of where we are headed next.  We see the beauty in the simplicity of neon against a night sky or a small corner of a big world.

    Trex Northwest by Robert Josiah Bingaman
    Trex Northwest, acrylic on panel, 20×16
    Trex Southwest by Robert Josiah Bingaman
    Trex Southwest, acrylic on panel, 20×16

    It’s so easy to focus on what isn’t right about a place.  Especially as Mr. F and I always know that for now, each spot is just a temporary home.  But we’ve found that once a place is just a memory, we tend to recall it more fondly.  Its flaws fade and we learn to love it from afar.

    Nevada by Robert Josiah Bingaman
    Nevada, acrylic on linen, 120×54

    To see more of Robert Josiah Bingaman’s work, please visit his website.

    Artist found via New American Paintings. All images via the artist’s website.

  • Artful Wanderings: Catherine Beaudette

    Artful Wanderings: Catherine Beaudette

    When you travel as much as Mr. Forager and I do, there is always a danger of confusing memories of where we’ve been and when!  One of our favorite post-dinner-over-a-glass-of-wine past times is watching the screensaver slideshow of all our adventures.  The Global Cities series of paintings by Toronto artist Catherine Beaudette seem to be an artful conglomeration of urban wanderings.

    Funnel by Catherine Beaudette
    Funnel, oil, 36×27

    In Beaudette’s paintings, buildings, interiors, and vistas overlap one another, so that we’re never quite sure exactly where we are.  Its as if the artist is painting the most special memories of each place.. the way the light and shadows feel through a window, beautiful lines of architecture, the warmth of a spring day.

    Strada by Catherine Beaudette
    Strada, oil, 36×27
    Corridor by Catherine Beaudette
    Corridor, oil, 36×27

    The farther we travel from some places, the more fuzzy our memories become.  Like Beaudette’s work, we may remember the most beautiful parts of each place, taking with us only the good and happily leaving behind any darkness.

    Balustrade by Catherine Beaudette
    Balustrade, oil, 36×27

    To see more of Catherine Beaudette’s work, please visit her website.  Mr. F & I definitely have a few places we’ve been that we’ve grown fonder of over time, thanks to good memories overshadowing the bad.  How do you keep track of your travels?  Old fashioned photo albums, post card collections?

    Artist found via Sopa Fine Arts.

  • Dissected Perfection: Joseph Phillips

    Dissected Perfection: Joseph Phillips

    As we travel and move from rental to rental, Mr. Forager and I talk a lot about our future permanent home. We think about our ideal life, which, aside from a smallish house in the Northwest, can be a pretty fluid concept for us. We see so many people striving for that “perfect” life, the one we are told we should have, a big house in suburbia, perfectly manicured lawn and all. The work of Joseph Phillips website embodies this obsession in succinctly drawn works depicting dissections of perceived perfection.

    Double-Wide Bunker with Paradise Package by Joseph Phillips
    Double-Wide Bunker with Paradise Package, gouache, graphite and ink on paper, 41×30
    Duplex Bunker by Joseph Phillips
    Duplex Bunker, gouache, graphite and ink on paper, 17×14

    Scenes of neatly trimmed grass and crystal clear pools are isolated against a white background and we see from the outside looking in that these are manufactured replicas of an idealized life.

    String Theory ( diptych ) by Joseph Phillips
    String Theory ( diptych ), gouache, graphite and ink on paper, 24×18 each

    The utopian ideals take on a slightly sinister, Stepford-like aura, where perfect grass is revealed to be carpet, where pine and palms live together, where a perfect house comes with a bunker, acknowledging that life isn’t anywhere near perfect.

    Vertically Integrated Model for Multi-Climate Living by Joseph Phillips
    Vertically Integrated Model for Multi-Climate Living, gouache, graphite and ink on paper, 30×39
    Auxilliary Lot with Site Plan by Joseph Phillips
    Auxilliary Lot with Site Plan, gouache, graphite and ink on paper, 41×30

    To see more of Joseph Phillip’s work, please visit his Joseph Phillips website.

    Artist found via New American Paintings blog. All images are via the artist’s Joseph Phillips website.

  • Art to Inspiration: Laura E. Pritchett

    Art to Inspiration: Laura E. Pritchett

    Art to Inspiration is back!  The time for this collaborative blogging project is here once again and this month’s inspiration is being provided by artist Laura E. Pritchett.  I have always loved the possibility inherent in the disappearing path.. One of the artists showing in our City Mouse | Country Mouse exhibition in found gallery, Deann Hebert, also has a love for roads that lie before us.  So for my Art to Inspiration, I’ve put together a little gallery of Deann’s own paths taken.

    The inspiration–

    Out of the Woods by Pritchett
    Out of the Woods by Laura E. Pritchett

    The gallery– 

    The Path by Deann Hebert
    The Path**
    Country Road by Deann Hebert
    Country Road**
    Gracefully Growing by Deann Hebert
    Gracefully Growing**
    The Good Life by Deann Hebert
    The Good Life
    The Path I've Chosen by Deann Hebert
    The Path I’ve Chosen

    Asteriked work can be found ( heh, get it? ) in the City Mouse | Country Mouse exhibtion.  The other work by Deann can be found on her website.  What paths are you contemplating these days?

    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! 

    Out of the Woods image via Laura E. Pritchett.  Other images via Deann Hebert.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Eva Magill-Oliver

    Artsy on Escape Into Life: Eva Magill-Oliver

    Less is more.  Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.  Sometimes, I just love to cleanse the artsy palate so to speak, with work that is beautiful in it’s seeming naivete and guilelessness.  Perhaps that is why I was drawn to the work of Atlanta artist Eva Magill-Oliver and am featuring her in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life today.  Go on over to EIL here to see more of Eva’s work!

    Turn by Eva Magill-Oliver
    Turn by Eva Magill-Oliver

    Eva Magill-Oliver on Escape Into Life

    Artist found via Gregg Irby Fine Art.  Image via the artist’s website.

  • Under an Urban Sky: Jennifer Seymour

    Under an Urban Sky: Jennifer Seymour

    I don’t know what it is about this time of year, but it makes me crave a big city.  A city with bustling sidewalks and tall buildings.  Mr. Forager and I are still trying to figure out if we’re urban or small town people.  The work of British Columbian artist Jennifer Seymour definitely has me leaning toward big city life.

    Oscillations, mixed media on panel, 48×24

    Seymour’s works begin as photographs she’s saved and collected over time and are then reworked with layers of charcoal, pastel and glaze resulting in pieces that glow.  It’s as if all those reflective surfaces and city lights are caught in one hurried moment after another.

    Jump Start, mixed media on panel, 24×24
    Distant Constellation, mixed media on panel, 48×24

    These mixed media works capture what I love most about urban centers– the energy, that glimpse of mountains or river just beyond the skyscrapers, the feeling of endless possibility and opportunity.

    Skywalk, mixed media on panel, 48×24

    To see more of Jennifer Seymour’s work, please visit her website.  I’ll be here in yet another small town, dreaming of a more metropolitan life. 😉

    Artist found via one of her representing galleries, Sopa Fine Arts.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • A Touchable Light: Henry Isaacs

    A Touchable Light: Henry Isaacs

    As I may have mentioned, my hubby and I are renting a little apartment on a lake here in Northern Idaho for the next few months.  We’ve taken a few meals down to the water, eating and drinking wine on the dock, waiting for that bewitching hour when the light begins to turn.  New England artist Henry Isaacs’ work captures the magical pink light of dusk and the abstract beauty to be found in every landscape.

    Near Elizabeth, NC, oil on linen, 16×12
    Mountain Spring ( along Rte 92 N ), oil on linen, 40×30

    Isaacs’ work beautifully captures the simplicity of form to be found in our surroundings and how when the light changes color, so too, does the landscape take on a new hue.

    Canon Rock #2, oil on linen, 40×30

    In the brightest warmth of day, yellows dominate, then, as the sun softens the colors slowly fade and the light becomes softer.

    View East from the Terryberry’s, oil on linen, 40×30
    View South from Elizabeth City, NC, oil on linen, 40×30

    To see more of Henry Isaacs’ work, please visit his website.

    Featured image is View East From the Terryberry’s, oil on linen, 40×30.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • The Sweet By & By: Deann Hebert

    The Sweet By & By: Deann Hebert

    There are times I wonder if I have multiple personalities.  I love big cities for all of their energy, culture and swagger.  New York continues to be one of my favorite places in the world.  But I also adore the sweet, slower pace and relaxed living of more rural areas.  Maybe it’s my grandmother’s farm girl roots or my love of quiet and the outdoors.  But whatever the cause, the work of Franklin, TN artist Deann Hebert reminds me of the glory of picnics and winding country roads.

    Blessed

    Obviously, Deann’s subject matter brings to mind life’s simple pleasures.. fields full of flowers, the wonder of a bird’s nest, the sweetness of a secluded little country church.

    Fall Whispers

    She reinforces her bucolic atmospheres by using a soft, neutral palette and layer upon layers of painted texture reminiscent of tree bark and peeling barn paint.

    Nests

    Her work makes me want to load up a picnic in my bike basket ( ok, I don’t have one yet, but I’m working on it! ) and ride along the fence line, saying hello to cows and horses and passersby.

    The Painted Fence
    Country Barn

    In the words of John Denver, Country roads, take me home!  At least that’s what the country mouse side of my personality is longing for today.  The city mouse may show up again tomorrow. 😉  To see more of Deann Hebert’s work, please visit her website and Facebook page.

    Featured image is Easter Sunday.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Serene Strength: Claire Sherman

    Serene Strength: Claire Sherman

    There is a quiet power that abides in certain landscapes that compels us to humilty.  No cell phone reception, no internet, no traffic whizzing by.  Nothing to make us believe we are the center of the universe.  Just earth and rock and water and light.  It is in these places that the earth is welcoming, yet can be strong and unyielding.  The work of New York artist, Claire Sherman captures the essence of the quiet, raw power of our natural world.

    Boulders, oil on canvas, 86×78

    Sherman’s overall cool palette, tinged occasionally with warm tones conveys the earth’s reticent beauty.  It wants us to explore and appreciate its wildness, but fears the mark our hand often leaves.

    Butte, oil on canvas, 72×84
    Ravine II, oil on canvas, 84×96

    This is still a dangerous place.  We often forget, wrapped safely in suburban cocoons, thinking we are master of all that we survey.  Yet still in many places, one wrong step and we may become prey to the earth’s power.  The artist’s linear, often jagged brushwork reminds us to tread carefully.  She is beautiful, yes, but we must never forget her untamed nature.  Try as we might to use her up, certain parts of the earth will always remain wild and inhospitable to man.

    Holes, oil on canvas, 72×60
    Trees III, oil on canvas, 78×84

    These places are for her renewing and for moments ours, but they belong to her.  That we will do well to remember.  To see more of Claire Sherman’s work, please visit her website.  Her work can be seen in person at the Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago.

    Featured image is Pile of Rocks, oil on canvas, 72×78.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • America The Surreal: Deborah Martin

    America The Surreal: Deborah Martin

    America is often a strange place and seems to just keep getting stranger.  Los Angeles artist Deborah Martin captures the sad desolation found across our country  in her poignant paintings.

    Aces and Spades, oil on canvas, 36×36
    Slab City Chairs, oil on canvas, 36×36

    Her use of a limited, pastel neutral palette softens the sometimes oddly grim reality of many lives in America.

    Keep Out, oil on canvas, 36×36

    Yet somehow, these aren’t dark, depressing images of life in one of the richest countries in the world.  They don’t feel critical or satirical, but rather reverent and dreamy.

    Fifty-two, oil on canvas, 36×36

    To see more of Deborah’s work, please visit her website.  If you are in the Los Angeles area, she is currently showing at The Red Arrow Gallery in Joshua Tree, CA.  I have a feeling these paintings are even more intriguing in person!

    Featured image is Yellow Camper, oil on canvas, 36×36.  All images are via the artist’s website.