Tag: women

  • Bathing in Beauty: Nina Nolte

    Bathing in Beauty: Nina Nolte

    While Mr. F and I are camping in Yosemite, I’m resharing some posts you might have missed the first go ’round!  Enjoy!

    Although I love the cold winter months, for many, January is a tough month to swallow.  All the gaiety of the holidays now in the past, it seems such a long time before the warmth of spring and the ease of summer.  So on what may be for many of you a cold, dreary Monday, I thought a little sunshine and warmth from German artist Nina Nolte may put a little spring back in your socked & booted step!

    Nina Nolte | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings
    Forgotten Dreams, acrylic on canvas, 100x16x4 cm

    Nolte’s depictions of stylish ladies lounging by the pool recalls, to me, a modern-day version of traditional European works depicting the wealthy socializing and at play, such as Fragonard or Boucher.  The richness of the color ( that yellow! )and details in the folds of fabric bring to mind the sumptuousness of the textiles of Vermeer.

    Nina Nolte | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings
    The Days of Wine and Roses, acrylic on canvas, 100x200x4 cm

    The works do hearken back in some ways to European traditions, but it is done in such an enchantingly modern, yet elegantly timeless way.

    Nina Nolte | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings
    Some of Those Days, acrylic on canvas, 100x160x4 cm

    The viewer is given the position of voyeur, thanks especially to the bird’s eye view angle of many of the pieces.  It feels a bit like we’re eavesdropping on some really juicy society gossip!

    Nina Nolte | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings
    You Must Believe in Spring, acrylic on canvas, 65x65x4
    Nina Nolte | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings
    As Time Goes By, acrylic on canvas, 100x160x4 cm

    To bask in more of Nolte’s bathing beauties, please visit her website.  Think of these while you’re sloshing through freezing rain and snow!

    Featured image is How Deep is the Ocean?, acrylic on canvas, 1oox200x4 cm.  All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Stasia Burrington

    Artsy on Escape Into Life: Stasia Burrington

    Nothing says spring like girls with flowery tattooes!  When I spotted this piece by Seattle artist Stasia Burrington on Artsyo, I was smitten with her work, her use of cut paper florals and girls is at once sweet and strong.  Love it!  I’m featuring Stasia’s work in my Artist Watch on Escape Into Life today, see it here!

    Clementine, charcoal, ink and fabric collage on Stonehenge paper, 11×14

    Stasia Burrington on Escape Into Life

    Artist found via Artsyo, image also via Artsyo.

  • Drama Immersed: Gay Ribisi

    Drama Immersed: Gay Ribisi

    I apologize in advance for the number of posts coming your way featuring artists whose work I discovered at the LA Art Show.  I can’t help it.  There was so much amazingness there and some of the work I just can’t get out of my head!  I kept going back both physically and in my mind to the photographs of LA artist Gay Ribisi.

    Head Above Water 2 by Gay Ribisi
    Head Above Water 2, photograph

    No doubt, we’ve all seen underwater fine art photography.  But Ribisi’s method of blacking out the background and her storyteller’s style of setting each scene creates images that burn into our memories.

    The Space Cleaner by Gay Ribisi
    The Space Cleaner, photograph
    The Space Traveler 1 by Gay Ribisi
    The Space Traveler 1, photograph

    Her floating women, stark against their black backdrop are isolated in their moment and movement.  We know there is a tale to be told with each one, perhaps epic or ordinary.  It’s as if we’ve walked into a darkened theater in the midst of the 3rd act, who is this on stage?  What is her story?

    The Red Dress by Gay Ribisi
    The Red Dress, photograph

    To see more of Gay Ribisi’s work, please visit her website.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

     

  • The Feminine Mystique: Pam Hawkes

    The Feminine Mystique: Pam Hawkes

    We are all guilty of over-sharing these days.  Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Four Square, etc., the world has become privy to our innermost thoughts, what we ate for lunch, how many miles we ran that day.  We scoff at reality shows detailing the daily lives of the Kardashanians, Snookis, and Honey B00-Boos of the world.  We wonder, whatever happened to the allure of mystery?  UK artist Pam Hawkes reaches back into the iconography of illuminated manuscripts and Renaissance portraiture to cleanse our palate of the modernly overexposed.

    Unbound, oil on copper leaf on board, 61×104 cm
    Tracing Mythologies II, oil on copperleaf on board, 62×122 cm

    The stillness and serenity of Hawkes’ figures are at such odds with how we live today.  The often classical poses reminiscent of religious iconography of the Virgin Mary and other figures may at first seem foreign to our contemporary eyes.  Yet there is a softness and vulnerability in these women, as if the ancient had come alive and found itself somehow wandering about our modern world.

    You Made Me II, oil, beeswax, and dutch metal on board, 30×41
    Fading, oil on copper leaf on board, 122×122 cm

    There is a sense of bound freedom to Hawkes’ figures, as if they are only just discovering the door to their cage is open.  We wonder why they sit so still, resisting the temptation to be free.  Perhaps they, like us, have grown fond of their cages.

    Birdsong, oil on copperleaf on board, 76×122 cm

    To see more of Pam Hawkes’ work, please visit her website— a great many gorgeous works to see there!

    Artist found via artist Deborah Scott and POETSArtists Magazine.

    All images are via the artist’s website.

  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Mertxe Alarcon

    I can’t tell you how much it thrills me to have talented artists contact me to be featured on the blog.  I’m planning to feature Barcelona artist Mertxe Alarcon’s work here at Artsy Forager soon, but I just couldn’t wait to share it with you.  So head over to Escape Into Life today for a little sneak peek!

    Self Portrait by Mertxe Alarcon

    Mertxe Alarcon on Escape Into Life

  • Naked Abandon: Lee Price

    Naked Abandon: Lee Price

    Sometimes, I find an artist’s work so powerful, that I can’t write about it immediately.  When I found New York artist Lee Price’s work, I wanted to share it as soon as possible, but just couldn’t write about it yet.  So I featured her on my Artist Watch over on Escape Into Life, where I can simply post images, a bio and a link.

    Lee Price | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

    Having been naturally thin and active almost my entire life, up until recently, I’ve never really had weight issues.  There were times I actually wished to be a little more curvy, more womanly.  But as I approach the big 4-0 next week (!), I find myself struggling more than ever with my body image.  Having listened to every woman I know complain about her body at one time or another, I know that I am not alone.

    Lee Price | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

    Lee Price’s work speaks to food obsessions and compulsions so common, especially among women.  Her pastel, candy-colored palette belies the darkness at the heart of each painting.  Her women are isolated, surrounded not by friends, family or lovers, but by piles of food, rarely untouched.

    Lee Price | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

    Constantly bombarded with conflicting media, we, as women, are often left feeling inadequate and confused.  We retreat into ourselves, indulging when we are alone so that the only judgement we’ll feel is our own.  Will we ever stop condemning ourselves so harshly?

    Lee Price | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

     

    Lee Price | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

    For me, its still a struggle to make the right choices.  Gone are the days of being able to eat whatever I like and still be a size 5.  But also gone are the days of eating like a bird and obsessing over the way my body looks in a bikini.  I may be a bit more curvy, but I’m choosing to be happier than ever.  For me, it’s been a choice worth making.

    To more of Lee Price’s work, please visit her website.

    Featured image is Ice Cream, oil on linen, 62×31.  All images are via the artist’s website.
  • Artsy on Escape Into Life: Lee Price

    My post this week on Escape Into Life features an incredibly amazing artist with a poignant story to tell.

    Lee Price | artsy forager #art #artists #paintings #contemporaryart

    Don’t miss out on Lee Price’s work.

    Lee Price on Escape Into Life

  • Resplendent Enigmas: Brad Kunkle

    Resplendent Enigmas: Brad Kunkle

    A man gives many question marks, however, a woman is a whole mystery.  ~Diana Stürm

    Artist Brad Kunkle is a creator of feminine mysteries.  Haunting, glistening visual fairy tales which are at once throwbacks to the past and yet thoroughly modern.

    Candela, oil and silver leaf on wood, 33×32

    His work takes inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelite era, as evidenced by the medieval-feel of the compositions, near photographic precision and intricate surface detail.

    The Quickening, oil and gold and silver on linen, 44×22

    But don’t be mistaken, Kunkle’s figures and compositions are not antiquated, but rather fresh and current.  The paintings are like pages of out a Vogue magazine fairy tale– and I mean that in the best possible way.  These aren’t helpless ingenues, but contemporary women caught up in circumstance.

    Afela’s Nature by Brad Kunkle, oil and gold and silver on linen, 16×14
    The Arrangement, oil and silver leaf on linen, 34×18

    These are the modern daughters of Eve, tempted and tempting, the subject of desire and blame.  Filled with sensual strength tinged with sadness.  Kunkle tells the story of their past by placing them in classical compositions and poses, but the elegant background treatments and inherent edginess keep them firmly on current ground.

    The Source, oil and gold and silver on linen, 26×18

    To see more of Brad Kunkle’s work, please visit his website.  If you’re in the New York area, his work is represented by Arcadia Gallery, where he will exhibit a solo show in Spring 2012.

    Featured image is “Girl With Serpent and Pearls”, oil and gold and silver on linen, 25×30.

    All images are courtesy of the artist’s website.