Dustin Bailard paints decadent sirens with lush lips and lashes.
They are spindly fallen angels, kitten-like vixens, innocent caricatures of femininity who possess impossible beauty…all depicted in fabulous, eye catching color.
The eyes frequently convey a sparkling sense of sadness which belies their exaggerated beauty. It’s a very striking effect; quite well done.
It was this particular character that drew me into Renee French’s work. This fellow was the subject of a daily drawing series, and each one was amazingly expressive. I love this little lump with limbs.
A deeper look in her portfolio brings us a plethora of creatures; some impossibly wide-eyed and cute, others appearing content, trepidatious, shocked or frightened.
She does a brilliant job creating very nuanced emotions in her non-human subjects.
Today I bring you Ephemereality.
Many of her works fuse the beautiful and oh-so-slightly macabre or strange.
She states: “Beauty is fleeting, but art can capture that fleeting moment and make it an eternity. I seek to catch these ephemeral artistic pauses of life and imagination, and create instances that can last forever.”
I really love Tom Lohner’s animal series.
They have a kind of bionic, sci-fi vibe to them, though on a literal level they are anthropomorphizing animals in very human situations.
In the description of these pieces, Lohner draws attention to the way animals exist on instinct, and questions the “superiority” humans tend to believe they have over the animal kingdom (I, for one, always swear that my cats can teach me a lot, and have much respect for the authentic, zen nature of wild animals!).
Stephanie Law paints gorgeous, lush nature scapes.
From the artist bio:
Stephanie Law’s work is an exploration of mythology mixed with her personal symbolism. Her art journeys through surreal otherworlds, populated by dreamlike figures, masked creatures, and winged shadows.
The fantastical permeates through the visions, and you get a sense that this is a world that underlies our own, when viewed with a desire for beauty and a shifted perception.
Archetypes, the basis for the universal appeal of mythological concepts, are one of the defining inspirations for her imagery. This is mingled with the movement of dance.
Stephanie has been a dancer for almost two decades, and she uses that experience of how the human body moves and emotes to create a bridge into her artwork so that not only do the humans dance across the page, but the very branches of her trees seem to move with a sinuous grace, and the arrangement of inanimate elements has a choreographed rhythm and flow.
Conrad Haberland was another random Instagram find for me.
His style is rather unique among the pop surrealists…
…and his use of typically divergent styles in the same composition can work really well.
So much for the eyes to take in here!
Let’s start with some sea inspired fashion…
And a gorgeous octopus ice sculpture:
A stunning still frame.
I like the way this woman thinks. Pizza will never break your heart.
A beautiful soul is made of rabbits.
Oh thank you, Rachel, for this…and your other invaluable contributions to this post.
I’m sure it’s happening somewhere…
Traveling in style.
I approve of this progression.
Yep, it’s a wig made of countless earbuds on strings…for people who want to have listening parties and don’t care about personal space.
Who remembers this?
All of my outfits are based on various diaphonized specimens. Fashion at its finest.
Today I give you the psychedelic (and geometric) portraiture of Nick Fedaeff.
From the artist bio:
The slightly disorienting, the hallucinatory quality of a dream, the element of surprise, the absurdity of life are cleverly layered into Nick’s work referencing Surrealism and the Old Masters of the Renaissance.
Thematically Nick interprets the relationships and interconnections between men and women and life and death adding humour as tool of engagement. The study of conscious and unconscious leaves the observer with the unsettling feeling that there is more to the stories than meets the eye.
Though it is not traditional horror art, Giuseppe Velardo’s portraits have a haunting, unsettling quality.
(Okay, not all of his portraits are dark, but due the visceral stir of emotion he can evoke in them, I’m partial to the dark ones).
Adult coloring books are all the rage these days. Egle Art & Design makes a number of detailed nature and mandala coloring books with beautiful pages.
I’m a big fan of the notebooks and planners, which allow for coloring on the cover and on select pages inside.
Unfortunately, the Etsy shop doesn’t carry all items at all times, but perhaps the artist takes requests.
Just got out of the hospital very early this morning so I’m a little behind on posting, but here are some Insta-Goodies…
Paul Flinders has a great series of odd, vaguely alienesque characters.
In a quote from 2011, he states:
My poetic dimension in visual art flows from my sense of wonderment. I approach experience with optimistic curiosity and a particular attraction to the creepy and absurd.
When strange recollections allow the imagination to run riot, waking experience feels like a dream and it causes us to question the reality of the moment with a sense of awe. This is the very state I attempt to achieve visually.
Kathleen Lolley paints intriguing depictions of animals (many owls!) and the natural world.
I love her surreal chimeras and scenes…
