I am completely in love with the graphic illustrative quality of Seonna Hong’s work. Which is why she’s being featured in my Artist Watch over on Escape Into Life today! Check it out here!
Seonna Hong on Escape Into Life
Artist found via The Art Cake.
To me, the best stories are those that are carefully layered and woven together with a touch of mystery. Artist Sarah Awad’s work intertwines seemingly disparate elements to create wonderfully complex and cryptic visual narratives.
In some of Awad’s work, we seem to be looking into a classical museum, filled with artifacts and precious antiquities. These pieces have a eerieness to them that give us a sense of happening upon an unfolding story.
In each piece, we wonder what just happened here or what is about to happen? There is an anticipatory feeling and a slight unease to each work.
To see more of Sarah Awad’s work, please visit her website. If you happen to be in the Seattle area, you can see Sarah’s work in person at James Harris Gallery.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been visiting at my brother’s home in Florida, rooming with an extremely energetic seven year old, my niece Kendall. My dad gave Kendall the nickname of Firecracker— a nod not only to her fiery red hair but also to the tiny bundle of explosive energy that she is. The frenetic energy in the work of Australian artist Todd Hunter is definitely Firecracker level.
Hunter’s work is filled with the types of gestural strokes, saturated color, and wild movement that makes my heart skip a beat.
This is work that grabs you, draws you in, and leaves you breathless. While the visual intensity of each work may be what captures our gaze initially, the moments of quiet within the composition end up being what keeps us coming back for more.
To see more of Todd Hunter’s work, please visit his website. Which types of work are you most drawn to? Peaceful and quiet or full of crazy good energy?
All images are via the artist’s website.
The work of this month’s Featured Artist, Marsha Glaziere is filled with luscious layers, texture, pops of bold color, and a skilled hand at good old fashioned drawing. No matter the subject she undertakes, her style and way of working is unmistakably hers.
Her work straddles the line between representational and abstract, almost as if she begins in realistic mode and then her abstract altar-ego takes over. The resulting work then becomes more about the energy of her subject rather than perfecting every small detail.
Marsha’s latest series, Coffee Spots, features her interpretations of the eclectic coffee houses in and around the Puget Sound. It’s no secret that Northwesterners ( especially those in or near Seattle ) take their coffee very seriously. Marsha decided to begin painting her favorite local spots in celebration of the coffee culture that began in the PacNorthWest and has since spread across the country and around the world.
The Coffee Spots series has been made into a 2013 calendar and fabulous “table COFFEE book”, both of which would make wonderful holiday gifts for the artsy coffee lover in your life! Both the calendar and book are available for purchase on the artist’s website. While you’re there, don’t miss all the other incredible artwork on Marsha’s site, some of which you can also see in her album on the Artsy Forager Facebook page!
While I adore abstracts full of wild, expressive brushstrokes, sometimes abstracts with a focus on quiet shapes and patterns are a welcome respite. In today’s Artist Watch over on Escape Into Life, I’m featuring the work of Lucy Mink, whose paintings feature muted tones and the comfort of repetitive patterns. See Lucy Mink’s Artist Watch here!
Because of the transitory nature of my life currently, many times Mr. Forager and I will purposely seek out coffee shops, art openings, and pubs merely for the opportunity to interact face to face with other people. Baltimore based artist Laura Hudson takes such opportunities a few steps further, cultivating events in order to draw people together, observe their scenes of interaction, then distilling selected scenes as life-scale paintings.
To see more of Laura Hudson’s work, please visit her website. She is an artist in residence at Gallery Four in Baltimore.
Artist found via New American Paintings. All images are via the artist’s website.
Wishing a very happy Thanksgiving to all the US Artsies and a day of blessing to everyone! I am thankful for the inspiration found in the work of so many talented artists, the encouragement of all my artsy readers, and the opportunity to bring these two blessings together each day.
Hope you are all enjoying an abundance of love today!
Image by November Featured Artist, Susan Melrath. See her work on the Artsy Forager Facebook page & her website.
It’s no secret that colors can have an effect on our mood. There are certain shades that just make me happy and artwork that concentrates on the interaction of colors and their properties make my heart sing. Chicago artist Judy Ledgerwood’s work explores the ways in which the placement of color creates graphic interplay and the illusion of light.
Ledgerwood’s large scale works are drenched in saturated color, focusing on simple shapes and patterns. The eye isn’t distracted by detail but can concentrate on the sheer beauty of color and shape.
She uses the placement of color to play with pattern and light. Shadows and movement emerge through the simple interaction of color.
To see more of Judy Ledgerwood’s work, please visit her page on ArtSlant.
Artist found via The Art Cake. All images via ArtSlant.
I’ve always had a fascination with Asian cultures, especially Chinese folklore and familial traditions. Chinese American artist Hung Liu’s work evolves from her background in socialist realism taking traditional “mythic poses” of Chinese propoganda photography and reshaping them into visual stories of feminine strength.
The women in Liu’s paintings are not victims. They are towers of strength, their fortitude existing not in brute force but in quiet dignity.
To see more of Hung Liu’s work, please visit her website, as well as the website of her representing gallery, Diehl Gallery, where I first discovered her work.
All images are via the artist’s representing Jackson Hole, WY gallery, Diehl Gallery.
There is so much cynicism to be had in this world, that sweetness and innocence seem to get lost in the shuffle. What drew me to the work of Scottish artist Catriona Miller is its charming purity.
Her figures gaze coyly to the side, just a hint of a smile on their lips. It’s as if they carry a delicious secret they cannot tell.
Isn’t it interesting how we might often feel sorry for “simple” folks, yet how much more happy might they be than we?
To see more of Catriona Miller’s work, please visit her website.
All images are via the artist’s website.