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      Delightful Nighttime Landscapes Nestle into Stacked Wooden Boxes in Allison May Kiphuth’s Dioramas

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      Art

      #animals
      #dioramas
      #found objects
      #miniature
      #mixed media
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #watercolor

      February 3, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Allison May Kiphuth, shared with permission
      Allison May Kiphuth (previously) shrinks the expansive landscapes found throughout the eastern United States into picturesque dioramas brimming with natural life. Through layered watercolor and ink renderings, the Maine-based artist creates a mix of quiet forest scenes and ocean habitats often under a dark, nighttime sky. She then stacks the outfitted wooden boxes, blending the marine and land-based pieces in varying positions that create new ecosystems with every combination.
      Although Kiphuth derives much of her subject matter from the area around her home, she shares that experiencing new scenes is essential to her practice. “I haven’t been outside of Maine in over a year, and while this landscape is usually so expansively beautiful to me, without the contrast of other landscapes for perspective, it’s been feeling incredibly small,” a feeling that’s amplified by her living and working from a tiny home that’s just 8 x 20 feet.
      The artist has a solo show slated for August at Antler Gallery in Portland, and limited edition prints of the piece above are available from Nahcotta. Get a glimpse into Kiphuth’s process and views of the scenery she references in her works on Instagram.

      “Bond,” watercolor, paper, and pins in antique box, 4 x 6 x 2 inches
      “Defense,” watercolor, paper, and pins in antique box, 4.625 x 7 x 3.75 inches
      Left: “Den” (2019), watercolor on layers of hand-cut paper, sealed with encaustic, 6 x 6.5 x .5 inches
      “Nightlight 2,” Watercolor, paper, thread, and pins in antique box, 6.25 x 4.875 x 3.25 inches
      “Observation” (2019), watercolor on layers of hand-cut paper, sealed with encaustic, 6 x 6 x .5 inches
      “Defense” in progress

      #animals
      #dioramas
      #found objects
      #miniature
      #mixed media
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #watercolor

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      More Than 90 Artists Create Original Works on Vintage Envelopes for ‘Couriers of Hope’

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      Art
      Illustration

      #animals
      #drawing
      #envelopes
      #found objects
      #mail art
      #watercolor

      January 14, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      By Andrew Hem
      What brings you hope? That’s the central question behind a new group exhibition presented by Port City Creative Guild. Couriers of Hope boasts more than 120 original pieces from more than 90 artists—the list includes Rosanne Kang Jovanovski, Andrew Hem (previously), Sean Chao (previously), and Yoskay Yamamoto—all rendered on vintage envelopes. Prompted by the mail art movement of the 1960s, the exhibition features an eclectic array of watercolor, pencil, and mixed-media illustrations that transform the miniature canvases into the artists’ vision for the future, whether through relaxed otters, peaches, or vivid portraits. Many of the works prominently display original postmarks and stamps and serve as a reminder that communication doesn’t have to be digital.
      Students from Long Beach Unified School District have the opportunity to acquire one of the envelopes by trading their own response to the artists’ same prompt, with the guild providing art supplies for participants to ensure that everyone has access to the initiative. The show was curated collectively by a Long Beach Museum of Art, Creative Arts Coalition to Transform Urban Space, Flatline, Inspired LBC, The Icehouse x Ink and Drink Long Beach, Arts Council Long Beach, Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum, Compound LBC, and the Creative Class Collective.
      Couriers of Hope will be on display in the windows of the Psychic Temple of the Holy Kiss in downtown Long Beach and on the guild’s site for virtual viewing from January 19 to February 28, 2021.

      By Sean Chao
      By Megan Boterenbrood
      By Adam Harrison
      By Bodeck Luna
      By Christine Yoon
      By Hilary Norcliffe
      By Judy Kepes
      Left: By Jonathan Martinez. Right: By Kelly Yamagishi
      By Narsiso Martinez
      By Rosanne Kang Jovanovski
      By Sean Chao

      #animals
      #drawing
      #envelopes
      #found objects
      #mail art
      #watercolor

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      Gemstones, Delicate Filigree, and Mechanical Gears Encase Steeven Salvat’s Insect Specimens

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      Art
      Illustration

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #gears
      #insects
      #watercolor

      November 18, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Steeven Salvat, shared with permission
      Steeven Salvat (previously) evokes the glass-covered entomological studies of rare butterflies, beetles, and moths with an additional layer of protection. The French artist armors the singular insects with precious gemstones, silver and gold filigree, and rotational gears. Even elements of luxury watches, like Breguet’s Reine de Naple and an intricate dial from Vacheron Constantin, cloak the critters’ outer shells.
      In a note to Colossal, Salvat writes that the growing collection of drawings is an “allegory for the preciosity of biological systems. A way to drive attention to our smallest neighbors on this planet—we need to preserve them because they are worth much more than all the gold and jewels I dressed them with.” Each intricate drawing is rendered with China black ink and watercolor and takes at least 50 hours to complete.
      Pick up a limited-edition giclée print of an encrusted creature in Salvat’s shop, and follow his latest projects merging nature, history, and science on Behance and Instagram.

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #gears
      #insects
      #watercolor

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      Revealing Struggles and Joy, Expressive Portraits Are Superimposed onto Watercolor Foliage

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      Art

      #flowers
      #plants
      #portraits
      #watercolor

      September 24, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Being true to your nature III.” All images © Àngela Maria Sierra, shared with permission
      Spanish artist Àngela Maria Sierra, who works as Riso Chan, explores the human psyche through subtly layered foliage. “I always imagine that they are someone’s soul, what we don’t see, our nature,” Sierra says of the delicate botanical assemblages that she overlays onto her subjects’ faces and torsos. Each portrait begins with a focus on texture and pattern as the artist paints clusters of twigs and leaves with watercolor. She then scans those botanical elements and uses Procreate to superimpose the figure onto the original piece.
      Alongside their simple beauty, the pastel paintings, some of which are self-portraits, reflect the narratives and worries that consume the artist’s daily life. She describes her work as “a journal where I express moments or feelings that are important for me during those days. It’s a way to give those feelings space and then let them go.” Tied to both struggles and joys, topics include finding freedom through creativity during lockdown, growing up in an drug-filled home, and the bravery required to move forward.
      Based in Amsterdam, Sierra is the founder of Bloom Art House, which hosts creative workshops throughout the capital city. Keep up with her expressive artworks on Instagram.

      “Freedom”
      “Being true to your nature II”

      “Spring”
      Left: “Turning on the lights inside.” Right: “Being true to your nature I”
      “New Path”
      “Toxic home”

      #flowers
      #plants
      #portraits
      #watercolor

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      Vintage-Style Illustrations Merge Animals, Insects, and Botanics to Form Bizarre Hybrid Creatures

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      Art
      Illustration

      #animals
      #birds
      #humor
      #plants
      #watercolor

      September 15, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images courtesy of Mark Brooks, shared with permission
      Full of extraordinary creatures, the illustrated series The Creative Specimens seamlessly combines species into unusual hybrids. Similar in color, each organism is bizarre in form. The feathered head of a bird is placed on a tortoise’s body, octopus tentacles sprout from the bottom of a cactus, and speckled coral comprises a deer’s antlers.
      Adobe’s 99U Conference spurred the collaborative project as a way to offer a visual language encompassing various creative careers and passions. Inspired by the biological classifications of Charles Darwin and his contemporaries, New York-based art director and graphic designer Mark Brooks digitally rendered the organisms by referencing vintage illustrations. He then passed the project to Joanmiquel Bennasar, an illustrator living and working in the Balearic Islands, who recreated the creatures in watercolor.
      Explore more of Brooks’s and Bennasar’s illustrated projects on Behance.

      #animals
      #birds
      #humor
      #plants
      #watercolor

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      A Surreal Watercolor by Illustrator Marija Tiurina Captures a Miscellany of Thoughts in Quarantine

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       All images © Marija Tiurina, shared with permission If Marija Tiurina’s latest watercolor appears to be a random mishmash of dreamy scenes, that’s because it is. The London-based illustrator (previously) recently completed “The Lockdown Project,” a dense composition inspired by dozens of submissions she collected during the first few weeks of quarantine. Complete with childhood memories, […] More

    • 138 Shares159 Views

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      Elegant Blooms Float Amid Botanical Watercolor Paintings by Artist Denise Ramsay

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       All images © Denise Ramsay, shared with permission Based in France, botanical artist Denise Ramsay renders fleshy petals and pollen-heavy stamen in an exquisite series of watercolor paintings. She focuses on the capitulum, or the head of the flower, to give each lavender lady and glory lily an animated quality. “Corona,” shown below, appears […] More

    • 163 Shares179 Views

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      Gears and Dials Rendered in Intricate Drawings of Gem-Encrusted Insects by Steeven Salvat

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       All images © Steeven Salvat, shared with permission French artist Steeven Salvat (previously) cloaks his beetles and butterflies in an elaborate armor of rotational gears, jewel-toned gems, and muted stained glass. He tells Colossal that the heavily adorned insects merge his passion for nature, history, and science. They’re “an ode to exceptional craftsmanship and […] More