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      A Poetic Book Illustrated by Tiffany Bozic Explores the Vast Diversity of Trees with Childlike Curiosity

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      Art
      Illustration

      #acrylic
      #books
      #children’s book
      #painting
      #trees

      August 16, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Tiffany Bozic, shared with permission
      In her first body of work geared toward children, artist Tiffany Bozic (previously) showcases the naturally occurring whimsy and wonder of the outdoors through saturated color, texture, and unusual perspectives: An upward glance frames towering redwoods with rugged bark, elusive flying squirrels cling to a branch, and dried leaves, fungi, and berries form a thick, colorful layer of groundcover. “I wanted to inspire children to notice how beautiful and important nature is and recognize that we are also animals, a part of nature. We only protect what we love. Trees are a great place to start because everyone has access to them, even in urban areas,” she tells Colossal.
      In the last two decades, the Marin, California-based artist has created hundreds of paintings on maple panel, often leaving the wood grain fully exposed or peeking through a thin veil of acrylic.  Bozic’s detailed interpretations highlight the singularity of individual plants and animals as she adeptly applies a surreal twist to her otherwise faithful portrayals—her earlier books Drawn by Instinct and Unnatural Selections show the breadth of this style—while Trees relies on a more realistic approach. Paired with a lyrical story written by Tony Johnson, the illustrated book is a reminder to celebrate the earth’s diversity with a sense of childlike admiration and curiosity.
      Trees is available for pre-order on Bookshop. You can follow Bozic’s new works, some of which will be informed by her research into the ways fire affects biodiversity in Tahoe earlier this summer, on Instagram. Find limited-edition prints and originals on her site.

      #acrylic
      #books
      #children’s book
      #painting
      #trees

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      Graceful Swimmers Breach the Water’s Surface in Sonia Alins’s Poetic Mixed-Media Illustrations

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      Art
      Illustration

      #acrylic
      #ink
      #mixed media
      #swimming
      #water
      #watercolor

      August 12, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Placer,” hand-embellished print. All images © Sonia Alins, shared with permission
      In Sonia Alins’s dreamy works, figures gently break through the surface of the sea, creating a minimal ripple around their bodies as they dip in and out of the water. The Spanish artist and illustrator (previously) is known for her expressive swimmers, whose enlarged limbs splay in graceful positions as they float and move through the ocean. Translucent sheets of vellum produce the cloudy effects of water, obscuring fish and coral and adding a three-dimensional element to the largely ink, acrylic, and watercolor drawings.
      Although Alins primarily centers women in ambiguous states of emotion, men and children have been emerging in her mixed-media illustrations, further reflecting on the artist’s own experience with motherhood and the incomparable force of aquatic environments. “I feel the water as powerful entity, a supernatural force capable of source anguish, pain, desperation in the same way that it is a source of happiness, joy, inner peace, and love. Water helps me to express my feelings ​in a louder way, and it’s why I love it,” she tells Colossal.
      Alins works on a variety of commissions in addition to her personal practice, and her ethereal project for Moleskine titled “The Beautiful Red Reefs” recently won her an Award of Excellence from Communication Arts’s annual competition. Browse originals and hand-embellished prints in limited quantities in her shop, and you can keep up with her illustrations, in addition to news about upcoming shows like the one at Taipei’s Contemporary by U gallery in October, on Behance and Instagram.

      “Return to Harmony”
      “Mar en Calma,” hand-embellished print
      “Maternal Love,” hand-embellished print
      Left: “The Bather.” Right: “Inspired by the Moon”
      “Birth”
      Left: “The Boys of the Rocks”, commissioned by 180 Hilos. Right: “The Girls of the Rocks”, commissioned by 180 Hilos
      “Swimming in the Ocean”

      #acrylic
      #ink
      #mixed media
      #swimming
      #water
      #watercolor

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      Lifelike Sculptures by Diana Beltrán Herrera Recreate Flora and Fauna in Intricately Cut Paper

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      Art
      Design
      Food
      Illustration

      #animals
      #birds
      #flowers
      #fruit
      #paper
      #plants
      #sculpture

      August 12, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Diana Beltrán Herrera, shared with permission
      Colombian artist Diana Beltrán Herrera (previously) adds to her growing collection of intricate paper sculptures with new plant and animal life. From her studio in Bristol, the artist and designer recreates lifelike reproductions of turacos, monarchs, and various species with nearly perfect precision. Innumerable fringed strips become feathers, faint scores mimic delicate creases in petals, and layers of bright paper form brilliantly colored plumes, creating a colorful and diverse ecosystem of wildlife from around the world.
      Prints, jigsaw puzzles, and cards are available in Beltrán Herrera’s shop, and you can see more of her recent commissions and personal projects on Behance and Instagram.

      #animals
      #birds
      #flowers
      #fruit
      #paper
      #plants
      #sculpture

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      Watercolor Illustrations by Steeven Salvat Cloak Natural Specimens with Elaborate Metallic Motifs

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      Art
      Illustration

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #insects
      #watercolor

      August 6, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Steeven Salvat, shared with permission
      History, science, and nature converge in the watercolor and ink drawings of French artist Steeven Salvat (previously). Whether encasing beetles in ornate armor, rotational gears, and antique dials or rendering vast entanglements of flora and fauna, Salvat’s works exquisitely apply a fanciful veil to wildlife and insects. Each piece, which is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking linework, stems from biological studies and 18th-century engravings, two themes the artist returns to as a way to allude to the precious qualities of the natural world.
      Salvat’s Nymphalidae series will be on view from August 14 to September 12 at Haven Gallery in Northport, New York. Find a multitude of videos detailing his process on Instagram, and shop limited-edition prints and originals on his site.

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #insects
      #watercolor

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      Silky Flowers Spring from CJ Hendry’s Enormous Hyperrealistic Drawings in Colored Pencil

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      Art
      Illustration

      #colored pencil
      #drawing
      #flowers
      #hyperrealism

      July 26, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Red Poppy,” 45 x 45 inches. All images © CJ Hendry, shared with permission
      Previously drawing giant strokes of oil paint and fruits, fish, and other edibles with remarkable depth and detail, Australian artist CJ Hendry shifts her focus to the soft, silky petals of peonies, roses, and tulips. She uses colored pencils to render individual florals and small bunches at an immense scale, magnifying their thin layers and sticky inner organs. The hyperrealistic drawings enhance the dimension and delicacy of each flower as they appear to blossom from the paper with exquisite detail.
      Hendry lives in Brooklyn and is working on similar botanical pieces for an upcoming exhibition in a dilapidated church in Mile End. Until that London show, follow her works and keep an eye out for limited-edition releases on her Instagram.

      “Peony Peeping,” 65 x 65 inches
      Detail of “Red Poppy,” 45 x 45 inches
      “Pink Fluffy Peony,” 45 x 45 inches
      Detail of “Pink Fluffy Peony,” 45 x 45 inches
      Detail of “Light Peach Rose,” 41 x 41 inches
      “Light Peach Rose,” 41 x 41 inches
      “White Peeping Peony,” 45 x 45 inches
      Detail of “White Poking Peony,” 41 x 41 inches

      #colored pencil
      #drawing
      #flowers
      #hyperrealism

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      Layers of Cut Paper Foliage Fragment Christine Kim’s Collaged Portraits

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      Art
      Craft
      Illustration

      #collage
      #graphite
      #mixed media
      #paper
      #portraits

      July 8, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Christine Kim, shared with permission
      Obscured faces peek through tangles of leaves and stems in the ethereal portraits of Toronto-based artist Christine Kim. Her mixed-media collages layer textured graphite gradients and mesh-like cuttings into splintered depictions of her subjects. “‘Fragmentary’ is one word that I return to again and again because I think portraiture is an act of catching glimmers of a person,” she tells Colossal. “I like the idea of not being able to see everything. Having multiple layers partially conceals but the patterns of foliage, (which) also act like a kind of shelter.”
      For each work, Kim first illustrates a single figure—the subjects shown here are models Yuka Mannami and Hoyeon Jung—and then digitally draws a corresponding botanical pattern. Those motifs are cut with the help of a Silhouette Cameo machine before they’re built up sheet by sheet. Graceful and at times surreal, the resulting portraits portray fractions of faces and hands that are duplicated or filtered through colorful webs.
      You can dive into Kim’s process in this studio visit, and find a larger collection of her tiered illustrations on Instagram. (via Supersonic Art)

      #collage
      #graphite
      #mixed media
      #paper
      #portraits

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      A Trio of Colorful Characters Expand Jean Jullien’s Installation in a Nantes Botanical Garden

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      Art
      Illustration

      #installation
      #public art

      June 29, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Jean Jullien, shared with permission
      Three new faces join the quirky cast of characters at Nantes’s Jardin des Plantes. Part of artist Jean Jullien’s Filili Viridi project that’ll be on view through November, the colorful trio is spotted reclining in the grass, perched in a tree, and plunged in a small reservoir. Joyful and slightly mischievous, the new additions, which are made of painted steel, join six others that have been hanging out in the botanical garden since last summer. See more of Jullien’s illustrated ensembles on Instagram, and pick up a poster in his shop.

      #installation
      #public art

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      Whimsical Illustrations and Motifs Dyed with a Traditional Wax-Resist Method Cover Caroline Södergren’s Eggshells

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      Art
      Craft
      Illustration

      #animals
      #eggs
      #insects
      #wax

      June 22, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Caroline Södergren, shared with permission
      Formally trained in glassblowing, Stockholm-based artist Caroline Södergren transfers her experience working with a delicate, fragile material to an ornately illustrated collection of eggshells. She adapts the traditional Ukrainian craft called pysanky, a wax-resist method that involves drawing a design on a clean, empty chicken, turkey, goose, or ostrich egg with hot beeswax. The shell is then dipped in multiple baths of dye and the seal washed away with oil to reveal the colorful, layered design—you can watch the entire process in the video below.
      The technique often is combined with folk art, although Södergren illustrates her own botanical motifs, beetles, and mythical creatures that stray from traditional designs. “You have to think before you start a pattern as the different color layers must come in the right order,” she says. “If you make a mistake with the wax, it is not possible to change, and a written line is where it is. A constant challenge that makes it so fun to work with!”
      Konsthantverkets Vänner, an organization dedicated to supporting Swedish arts and crafts, just awarded Södergren a scholarship for her batik designs. Browse available eggs in her shop, and find a larger collection on Instagram. (via Lustik)

      

      #animals
      #eggs
      #insects
      #wax

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