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Tag: Paintings

Artsy Happening: Announcing the Artsy Forager Collection for Mantle Art !!

If you’re following along with my Foraging on social media, you may have seen me let a little cat out of the bag last week.. Since the end of last year, I’ve been working on a limited edition collaboration with the Seattle based online art & framing company, Mantle Art, and I’m thrilled to announce that the Artsy Forager Collection for Mantle Art is now live!!

In partnership with the folks at Mantle Art, I’ve pulled together this first collection of four emerging artists, each one of whose work I feel speaks strongly and beautifully a unique visual story. Allow me to introduce you!

alexandra bellissimo | Alexandra is one of my favorite finds of the past year and was the Artsy Forager Featured Artist just last month. Her work has an edgy elegance to it that I am particularly drawn to. That top left piece is perhaps one of my all time favorite pieces of work, EVER. I can’t get enough of it.

click the image above to shop Alexandra’s collection on Mantle Art!

kelda martensen | Kelda was a new discovery for me through this process, but the minute I saw her work, I fell in love with it. In her original mixed media pieces, Kelda is seeking to define what home may be and though the answer for each of us is different, her work speaks a universal language. Look for an Artsy Forager feature on Kelda soon!

click the image above to shop Kelda’s collection on Mantle Art!

matt sawyer | Mr. F had a circle of really super cool friends during his Tulsa days. And photographer Matt Sawyer just happened to be among them. When I was putting together artist options for the collection, I wanted a photographer who was treating traditional imagery in a modern, fresh way so I was thrilled when the folks at Mantle Art loved Matt’s work as much as I did!

click the image above to shop Matt’s collection on Mantle Art!

anna kincaide | One of the most thrilling things about writing Artsy Forager has been the joy of finding an artist and following the growth of their work. Anna is one of the artists I’ve been most excited to watch emerge! I fell in love with her work the first time I saw it and she has only gotten better and better since. Her compositions are always stunning and the playfulness of pattern, as well as her use of light just create such lovely juxtapositions.

click the image above to shop Anna’s collection on Mantle Art!

Each piece in the Artsy Forager for Mantle Art Collection is available as a limited edition print on Hahnemuhle fine art paper and is available in three sizes 11×14, 16×20, and 20×24. Edition sizes are limited to 200 pieces per size, and each piece will be shipped with a certificate of authenticity. Mantle Art also offers matting and framing options for each piece– one stop shopping, ya’ll!

I hope you’ll wander through the collection, perhaps you’ll fall in love and add one of these beauties to your collection!

All images via the Artsy Forager Collection for Mantle Art.

*This post contains affiliate links. As curator of the Artsy Forager for Mantle Art Collection, I receive a small commission on each piece sold from the collection.

May 20, 2014
Atmospheric Excitations: Macarena Ruiz Tagle

If you’ve been following along my own little artistic journey, then you already know I’ve been a bit obsessed with color lately. Color has an incredible psychological effect on mood and atmosphere and when I saw the work of Chilean born, Berlin based artist Macarena Ruiz Tagle on The Jealous Curator last week, I immediately fell in love.

The series, aptly titled Atmosphere is a collection of works of acrylic and watercolor on paper. Amazing, right?? With their deep, tunnel-like darker center, we are plunged into these worlds of color. As the hue radiates out from the middle, lightening toward the paper’s edges, the fields of color almost seem to be these moving and vibrating auras. These are pieces it may be tempting to just pass by, but with a second look, there is so very much to see.

If you’d like to see more of Macarena Ruiz Tagle‘s work, please visit her website.

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

May 20, 2014
Behind the Hedges: Cary Reeder

We never know what someone else’s life is really like. Oh sure, we see carefully edited glimpses of the lives of others on Facebook, Instagram and the like, but often what we are seeing ( and sharing ) is exactly what we want to see. Houston artist Cary Reeder emphasizes the secrets kept behind the suburban blinds in her Neighborhood series.

Why do we have the tendency to close the world out when we’re at home? When we’re out in public, we’re usually not shy about letting others in. Certainly, there are particular homebound acts we’d rather not share, but what about those days when we’re just hanging out? I love seeing glimpses of happy couples and families through open windows. In these times when we rarely get to know our neighbors, it’s reassuring to see slices of the lives being lived in the other boxes around us. How about throwing those windows open this weekend, Artsies?

To see more of Cary Reeder’s work, please visit her website.

Images via the artist’s website and Facebook page. Artist found via New American Paintings.

May 16, 2014
Finding My Own Artsy: A New Series

If you follow me over on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been a bit obsessed with flowers this spring. Growing up in Florida, we really only had two seasons, summer and not summer. Until we started traveling out West, I’d never really experienced a true Fall, Winter, or Spring. Spring in the Northwest is especially lovely given all the amazingly beautiful blooming trees, shrubs and wildflowers! Ever since my first glimpse of cherry blossom petals littering the Seattle sidewalks, I’ve been smitten by Spring here.

left| cherry blossoms, right| Seattle Sidewalks, acrylic on paper, 18×24

The juxtapositions of colors and textures inspired me to begin a new series on paper, Rain and Rhododendrons. I’m still continuing with the Feminine Wiles series, but was itching to get back to painting in a larger format and thanks to a nice big pad of Canson Mixed Media Paper, a portable drawing board, and a sturdy travel portfolio gifted to me by Mr. F for my birthday last month, I was ready to dive in.

Forest Blossoms, acrylic on paper, 18×24

Like the Feminine Wiles series, these too are color studies, but I’m enjoying experimenting with a looser style, being able to work much more quickly and freely on larger paper than I’ve been able to ( so far! ) on small panels.

top| Arcata Marsh Wildflowers, acrylic on paper, 18×24, bottom| Allen Pond with wildflowers

I haven’t had dedicated painting time in a few weeks and I am itching to get back in, especially after Mr. F and I took a camping trip this weekend up to the Trinity Alps. I am so full of inspiration for this series, I am about to burst! So there will undoubtedly be more to come, soon.. In the meantime, you can see full shots of each of the pieces I’ve already completed in the Rain and Rhododendrons gallery page. And in case you missed it, there is also a Feminine Wiles gallery page, both under the My Work heading in the top navigation bar. I’ve also added an artist statement and bio on the My Work page– so much harder to write those things for yourself than it is to help others!

May 15, 2014
True Confections: Stefan Dunlop

You know that phrase, you get more flies with honey? Candy-coated truths always seem a bit more digestible. Whether its revealing political truths through comical satire or historical truths in frosted palettes as in the work of Australian artist Stefan Dunlop, difficult ideas can be approached more easily from a less threatening perspective.

Dunlop’s simple use of form and bright pastel palette immediately draw the eye, thinking we’re in for a fun ride. But his subject matter and old master-like composition lead us to want to investigate a bit further. There is a darkness lurking beneath that cotton candy surface.

To see more of Stefan Dunlop‘s work, please visit his website.

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

May 14, 2014
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 13, 2014
Finding Truth: Michael Cusack

One of the things that draws me again and again to abstract work is its ambiguity. We can never know for certain the source of the artist’s inspiration and every viewer carries to the work their own interpretation. The work of Irish Australian based artist Michael Cusack uses a consistent language of simple shapes and fields of white, each piece leaving us to determine exactly what it is we see.

For each viewer, the reality of what they see is unique. In viewing and living with abstract work like Cusack’s, we find ourselves on a quest to determine the truth of what we see. But we all look at each work through our own goggles of perception. Our experiences, memories and associations color our interpretation, giving these kinds of works a universal veracity unique to each viewer.

To see more of Michael Cusack‘s work, please visit his website.

Artist found via Art Hound. All images via the Martin Browne Contemporary website.

May 13, 2014
Wild Women: Jennifer Nehrbass

Just last night over a glass of wine and chocolate marscapone cheesecake, Mr. Forager and I were talking about where I saw my studio work going and I told him I didn’t really have a desire to become a figurative painter. And then this morning I came across the work of Jennifer Nerhbass. In her work, the New Mexico artist explores “The relationships of women to themselves and their environment”. Ok, maybe I’ve changed my mind.

As women, we get so caught up in society’s idea of what we should look like and who we should be. We find ourselves spending hours looking for that perfect little dress, even when we’d rather be outside. Since we’ve been traveling, I’ve been slowly stripping away those artifices I’d built up for so long. That closet filled with shoes, many of them rarely worn. Drawers filled with make-up and perfume. I’ve learned that Mr. F sees me at my most beautiful when we are hiking together– not in heels but hiking boots, no makeup, hair usually a mess. But what he’s seeing is the inspiration and peace that fills and recharges my spirit and soul. We so often forsake that for ourselves.

In her work, we see Nehrbass’s women often out of place in the wild, like they’ve suddenly been plucked out of their urban existence and somehow landed in the midst of wilderness. I see so many parallels with how we live as modern women and these paintings. We become so obsessed with creating beauty in ourselves that we lose touch with the life and beauty around us.

To see more of Jennifer Nehrbass‘s work, please visit her website.

Second image via Mirus Gallery, all other images via the artist’s website.

May 12, 2014
In Essence: Emily Crabtree

I’m finding so much to inspire and aspire to in the work of other artists lately, especially in the way abstract artists approach composition and color. How some artists choose to include graphic or narrative elements eluding to a certain subject or influence, while others, like Emily Crabtree, simply let color and form do the talking.

I love the way her work twirls and drips in cottony bundles of color. In these paper pieces, the forms isolated against a clean white background, almost seem to pulsate and dare to flit about the surface. Peeking in from this side or that, the cropped compositions feel like a fleeting glimpse of clouds of color floating in and out of view.

To see more of Emily Crabtree‘s work, please visit her website.

All images via the artist’s website. Artist found via Fresh Paint Magazine.

May 6, 2014
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.

May 5, 2014

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artistic pathfinding by lesley frenz

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