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      Pockets of Landscapes and Still Lifes Adorn Subjects in Lavish Portraits by Aniela Sobieski

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      Art

      #dogs
      #fashion
      #makeup
      #painting
      #portraits
      #surreal

      February 11, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Oil on panel, 8 x 10 inches. All images © Aniela Sobieski, shared with permission
      Aniela Sobieski is intrigued by “the human impulse to self-decorate,” a fascination that permeates every aspect of her portraiture. Evoking both baroque paintings and contemporary fashions, Sobieski adorns women and the occasional dog with elaborate makeup and sculptural accessories placed conspicuously to mask the subject’s features. She seamlessly maps classic still lifes and sparse landscapes directly onto the sitter’s face, often highlighting the natural shape of the eye and coating the figure’s lips in bold red.
      Apparent within Sobieski’s oil paintings is a symbiotic relationship between the subject and their lavish accessories: while a pair of daisies or bucolic scene serve as expressions of identity and emotion, the subject “provides them with an environment,” the artist writes. “It is my hope that these relationships speak to the tendency for nature and the human psyche to mirror each other.”
      Sobieski, who is based in St. Paul, has a solo show at Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee that’s slated for this October. Until then, follow her poetic artworks on Instagram, and pick up a print from Etsy. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

      “Bird Eyes,” oil on panel, 6 x 6 inches

      “Daisy Eyes,” oil on linen, 8 x 10 inches

      #dogs
      #fashion
      #makeup
      #painting
      #portraits
      #surreal

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      Lush Florals Sprout from Corsets and Dresses in Enchanting Paintings by Artist Amy Laskin

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      Art

      #fashion
      #flowers
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #plants

      February 2, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Blouse an Skirt!,” oil on linen, 40 x 50 inches. All images © Amy Laskin, shared with permission
      Through ethereal oil paintings, artist Amy Laskin juxtaposes decorative fashions and organic beauty. Thick bunches of hydrangeas, lilies, and wispy ferns spring from elaborate, beaded dresses and corsets, which swell into fully formed garments and shroud the works with an unearthly and enchanting aura. Each piece is figurative but non-representational, a decision Laskin shares stems from the idea that “nature is anonymous. She needs no name. She is everything.” 
      The artist’s studio is located in the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, the place she’s drawn inspiration from since moving to the island as a Peace Corps volunteer years ago. You can find more of Laskin’s work that’s brimming with the flora native to the region on her site and Artsy.

      “Grand Stand,” oil on linen, 19.5 X 15.5 inches
      “Haute Couture and Mother Nature Marry,” oil on board, 24 X 21 inches
      Left: “Up Rooted,” oil on linen, 17 X 14 inches. Right: “Rooted in Her Story,” oil on linen, 17 X 14 inches
      “Flora and Furbelow,” oil on linen, 45.5 X 45.5 inches
      Left: “Red and Green,” oil on linen, 12 x 12 inches. Right: “Flora’s Duppy,” oil on linen, 40 x 30 inches
      “Bodice and Botany,” oil on linen, 40 X 50 inches

      #fashion
      #flowers
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #plants

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      Oversized Butterflies, Moths, and Beetles Cloak Vintage Books in Paintings by Rose Sanderson

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      Art

      #acrylic
      #books
      #butterflies
      #found objects
      #insects
      #painting

      January 27, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Rose Sanderson, shared with permission
      Worn copies of World Books, agricultural texts, and classic novels become canvases for Rose Sanderson’s insect studies. Now a few years old, the expansive series boasts more than 100 paintings featuring beetles, moths, and butterflies that splay across the printed material. Each specimen is enlarged to showcase the details of their bodies as they wrap around the tattered spines.
      In a note to Colossal, Sanderson shares that her process is more cyclical than linear as she’s constantly resurfacing themes, materials, and methods from earlier works or those she previously set aside. While her focus currently is on abstract interpretations of the lichens found near her home in West Wales, she draws a connection between the intricacies of the organisms she paints today and the insects of her book series.
      Keep an eye out for Sanderson’s work in Issue #24 of Create! Magazine that’s curated by Colossal’s Editor-in-Chief Christopher Jobson. You can follow her specimen-centric projects, which include forays into miniature and 3-D, on Instagram.

      #acrylic
      #books
      #butterflies
      #found objects
      #insects
      #painting

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      Mysterious Marine Ecosystems Populate Rich Paintings by Robert Steven Connett

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      Art

      #animals
      #climate change
      #fish
      #nature
      #painting
      #plants

      January 27, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Devouring Star Jelly.” All images © Robert Steven Connett, shared with permission probes the ocean depths for
      Whether rendered as a snapshot of the ocean floor or a few drops of water under a microscope, the densely inhabited paintings by Robert Steven Connett (previously) are brimming with vitality. The Los Angeles-based artist probes the planet’s bodies of water, unveiling a range of flora and fauna that populate the mysterious and sometimes psychedelic ecosystems with exacting detail.
      From jellyfish and seaweed to microbes, the organisms memorialize Earth’s dwindling biodiversity. The onslaught of news concerning the climate crisis informs how Connett understands the urgency of his works—they evoke Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations but diverge from the German biologist’s drawings in color palette and foreboding elements—which serve as both earnest studies of aquatic creatures and  “a tribute to life as it was before the great extinctions began.”
      Even so, Connett shares that he focuses on the immense beauty and his curiosity about the natural world.  “I don’t want to sully the pictures I paint with death and ugliness,” he says. “I’m afraid the news of the real world will supply plenty of that.” He explains further:
      In the shadow of a withering planet, I create worlds that are lush and thriving. I hope my work can encourage and uplift those who are disheartened by the climate crisis. However, creating a memory of a time when our world was stable is not enough. We all must do everything we can to lessen the causes of the crisis.
      Original works, prints, and other products featuring Connett’s meticulous environments are available in his shop, and you can follow his latest projects on Instagram.

      “Hydroza”
      “Flower Mimic”
      “Sea Fauna”
      “Space Plankton”
      “Space Plankton 2”

      #animals
      #climate change
      #fish
      #nature
      #painting
      #plants

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      Explore Vermeer’s ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ in Incredible Detail with an Interactive 10-Billion Pixel Panorama

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      Last year, researchers released records from nearly two years of analysis of Johannes Vermeer’s most-recognized artwork, “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” While their findings didn’t include the subject’s highly sought-after identity, they did reveal that the gray backdrop is actually a dark green curtain and that the figure has eyelashes only visible with magnification. Thanks to Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier, of Hirox Europe, we all can study the intricacies of Vermeer’s elusive work and peer directly into the paint cracks with an interactive 10-billion pixel panorama. More More

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      Surreal Scenes and Pixelation Overlay Vintage Artworks in Hybrid Oil Paintings by André Schulze

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      Art

      #found photographs
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #surreal

      January 20, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images courtesy of Paradigm Gallery
      André Schulze scours dusty thrift store bins and private advertisements for vintage paintings and photographs created in the first half of the 20th Century. The German artist restores the found artworks and then dramatically alters them by working directly on the canvas, layering each rendering with boldly new scenes: a stodgy bookworm finds himself in a sea of fish, an elderly woman peers out her window only to see a neighboring home ablaze, and a vintage portrait is transformed into a feathered hybrid creature. The surreal additions are steeped in the artist’s distinct wit and humor that expand the decades-old narratives or that shape a rich and complex account within his original non-vintage pieces.
      Schulze’s whimsical paintings are included in Salvage, a group exhibition curated by Colossal’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief Christopher Jobson at Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Philadelphia. Examining how artists are revitalizing fragments of tradition and culture that were destined to be lost, relegated to the periphery, or buried forever, Salvage opens on January 22 with a live talk with Jobson, Schulze, Debra Broz (previously), and Yurim Gough—tickets are available on Eventbrite—and runs through February 20.
      Explore more of Schulze’s revisionary pieces on Instagram and Singulart.

      #found photographs
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #surreal

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      This Warty Pig Painting Is Thought To Be the Oldest Cave Art in the World

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      Art
      History

      #animals
      #cave art
      #caves
      #Indonesia
      #painting

      January 14, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Deep within Leang Tedongnge, a cave tucked away on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, archaeologists discovered this mulberry-hued painting of a warty pig and two hand silhouettes potentially belonging to the artist, which is now believed to be the oldest figurative work in the world. A study published in Science Advances this week says the impeccably preserved rendering is at least 45,500 years old, which predates previously discovered depictions of mythical creatures in the region. Those prior findings date back about 43,900 years.
      Questions remain about the exact age of the work and who made it. Archaeologists from Griffith University, who helmed the mission, utilized uranium-series dating to determine how old the speleothem, or mineral deposits, of the cave is rather than the actual painting. There’s also debate about whether modern humans are responsible for the renderings, a question that’s complicated by the fact that the only skeletal remains that date back at least 45,500 years in Sulawesi belong to early hominins.
      Dr. Adam Brumm, who co-authored the study, told The New York Times that researchers expect to discover similar artworks in the region, although the cave paintings are deteriorating at a rapid rate and could fade before they’re ever uncovered. “It is very worrying, and given the current situation the end result is likely to be the eventual destruction of this ice age Indonesian art, perhaps even within our lifetime,” Brumm said.

      #animals
      #cave art
      #caves
      #Indonesia
      #painting

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      Bold, Striking Portraits by Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe Render Expressive Subjects in Shades of Gray

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      Art

      #oil painting
      #painting
      #portraits

      January 13, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Red Bandana on Green Suit” (2020), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. All images © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe courtesy of Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, shared with permission
      Set against bold, impasto backdrops, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe’s portraits emphasize the subjects’ spirits, their emotional states and idiosyncracies conveyed through facial expression, gesture, and garments—striped suits, wide-brimmed hats, and bright red bandanas tied around their necks. He renders figures in shades of gray, painting distinctive artworks that embrace the multitudes of Black life through striking and powerful depictions. The goal, the Ghanaian artist (previously) said in an interview with Juxtapoz, is “to capture what they want to say but cannot say in just one image. So that when you see the figure or the painting, you wonder who the person is.”
      Quaicoe’s next solo show will run from April to May 2021 at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles. Until then, see more of his vibrant portraits on Artsy and Instagram.

      “Wilde Wilde West” (2020), oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
      “Lady in Sunglasses” (2020), oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches
      “Glare” (2020), oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
      Left: “DOPE” (2020), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. Right: “Green Wall” (2020), oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches
      “Observing” (2020), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
      “Wiyaala” (2020), oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
      “Bandana Cowboy” (2020), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

      #oil painting
      #painting
      #portraits

      Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now!

       
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