JOEL REA’S SURREAL METAPHORIC PAINTINGS

Joel Rea was born in 1983 and graduated from Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2003. He has exhibited his work in Australia and the United States and has been acclaimed for his oil paintings in many prestigious art awards through out Australia. In 2013 he was selected for the Archibald Salon Des Refuses exhibition in Sydney, the Black Swan Award For Portraiture in Perth, the Fleurieu Landscapes Prize in Adelaide and is the winner of the 2013 ANL Maritime Art Award in Melbourne. In the Summer 2013 issue of American magazine Art Business News, Rea was featured as one of thirty artists under the age of thirty who are revolutionizing the world of fine arts. In 2014 Rea was selected as a finalist in the prestigious Sulman Prize held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and for the second year in a row was selected as a finalist in the 2014 Black Swan Portraiture Prize held in Perth.

Joel Rea’s hyperrealist paintings delve into the depths of our minds. Using the physical elements as a metaphor for human emotion and experience, Rea portrays nature as pulsating energy that is both majestic and threatening. Rea describes himself as a Contemporary Surrealist Painter, but his work is also a twist on the aesthetics of the sublime in 18th century Romantic art. In common with Romantic artists, Rea is interested in the duality of opposites where nature is a source of purity and timelessness while also a dark sentiment and force of destruction.

SOURCE:https://wowxwow.com/artist-profile/joel-rea-ap

 

 

 

FACELESS PAINTINGS OF MARK KOSTABI

Mark Kostabi is an American artist and composer best known for his paintings of faceless mannequin-like figures, often set in surrealistic landscapes or scenes from art history. His work explores a variety of themes, including suicide, love, and the role of technology in the modern world. The artist is commonly associated with his painting Use Your Illusion, which was the cover art for Guns N’ Roses’s album of the same name. Born on November 27, 1960 in Los Angeles, CA to Estonian immigrants, he studied art at California State University in Fullerton before moving to New York in 1982. During the mid-1980’s, Kostabi was an active participant in the East Village cultural scene, and became well known in the area for publishing self-interviews. Over the course of his career, the artist has cultivated a controversial media persona after claiming credit for works that were designed and executed by his assistants. Kostabi’s works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Princeton University Art Museum, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, among others. He currently divides his time between New York, NY and Rome, Italy.

SOURCE:http://www.artnet.com/artists/mark-kostabi/

AMY JUDD’S MYTHOLOGICAL ART PIECES

London based painter Amy Judd paints collection’s of sensitive silent moments; some full of whimsical intrigue, others more surreal and seductive. These paintings draw inspiration from the enchanting and imaginative relationship between women and nature found in traditional mythologies and folklores.

The composition, light and positioning of the subject, creates curious images, which conjure up new “mythological” narratives or creatures within the paintings. A recurring theme is the use of Feathers as armour, and birds as familiars. The more surreal nude compositions are bold and strong, the feathers allude to strength, flight and bravery, rather than fragility.

However the paintings depicting women with birds (owls) have a calmer atmosphere, the use of negative space in the image lets the viewer breathe, the clothes worn by the figures and the muted colour palette create a nostalgic dream like feel to the paintings.

Amy Judd has looked to Chinese mythology for some of her latest works. ‘Huli Jing seduction’ takes its inspiration from stories written in the 18th century by Pu Songling and translates as ‘Fox Spirit’. The fox spirits encountered in these tales are usually females and appear as young, beautiful women. Typically fox spirits were seen as dangerous, but some of the stories in Pu’s Liaozhai Zhiyi are love stories between a fox appearing as a beautiful girl and a young human male.

JACEK YERKA’S SURREALISM

Jacek was born in Torun, Northern Poland, and both his mother and father were students of the local Fine Arts Academy. His earliest memories are of the smell of paints, which were a part of his childhood. His father was the source of imaginative ideas, and his mother made them work through artistic means. Yerka’s paternal grandmother was his source of play and awareness of nature, while his parents were busy creating his awareness of the artistic world.

In an attempt to choose a different path than his parents, Jacek was going to attend college to study astronomy or medicine initially, but before taking the entrance exams, he turned to painting.
Jacek initially tried to develop contemporary painting styles from impressionism to abstraction. He found himself fascinated with colors, and therefore with artists such as Cezanne and Paul Klee. The fifteenth century artists and Dutch tablet paintings were also a great influence in his painting evolution. Artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and Jan van Eyck were great inspirations to Yerka. Jacek attended the Faculty of Fine Arts at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, and found himself also interested in graphic design.
Yerka was able to create clear and interesting messages, and enjoyed success on local and international levels as a poster designer. In 1972, his first poster won a prize, and he created many more successful posters before graduation. In 1980, Yerka painted exclusively, and fulfilled many commissioned works of art. In 1996, he added pastels to his typically acrylic works. Pastels are used before finally applying acrylic paints. His art is filled with vivid color, and is rich with imagination. The central figures in his art consist of trees, towns, houses, and water. Imagination is used to change the natural places of objects. Mountains may become waves, or rivers may run upwards. Yerka believes that nature is the determining force in human existence. His Flemish technique, sharply-focused acrylic application, and surreal placement of subjects make his style reminiscent of others, yet very unique as well.
He has named himself the Surrealist Cagliostro, yet his imagination is all his own, to continue to produce stimulating art.

Jacek Yerka born in 1952, Polish painter

SOURCE:http://totallyhistory.com/jacek-yerka/

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO’S ART

“I paint what I see with my eyes closed.”
-Giorgio de Chirico-

Giorgio de Chirico was born to Italian parents in Volos, Greece, on July 10, 1888. In his art, he sought to evoke the hidden meanings behind everyday life, and his enigmatic scenes of empty cities, menacing statues, mysterious shadows and strange combinations of everyday objects inspired the artists of the Surrealist movement in the 1910s, De Chirico died in Rome, Italy, on November 19, 1978.
He first studied art at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Athens. After the death of his father in 1905, de Chirico’s mother moved her three children to Munich, where de Chirico completed two years of study at the Academy of Fine Arts. After leaving the Academy he continued to educate himself, taking a particular interest in the philosophical writings of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. He returned to Italy in 1908, traveling to Milan and Turin and settling in Florence.
As a young artist, de Chirico was inspired by the European Symbolist artists and their use of dream-like imagery. His earliest signature works combined a Symbolist sensibility with his love of the classical antiquities of Greece and Italy and his philosophical musings on the true nature of reality. In paintings De Chirico depicted dramatically lit city piazzas inhabited only by one or two figures, a statue or mysterious shadows.

In 1911, de Chirico traveled to Paris, France, where his brother, Andrea (also known as Alberto Savinio), was living. There, he exhibited his work and met a number of influential avant-garde artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brancusi.
Meanwhile, World War I had begun, and de Chirico and his brother were drafted into the Italian Army in 1915. In 1917, he met artist Carlo Carrà, who worked with him to define his style of “metaphysical painting,” emphasizing the hidden significance of ordinary places and objects.
De Chirico’s work was greatly admired by the newly formed Surrealist school of artists and writers, who were fascinated by dream analysis and the subconscious mind.
Though de Chirico did not identify himself as a Surrealist, he briefly collaborated with the artists of this circle, showing his work in their group exhibitions in Paris and illustrating books by Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Cocteau. However, in the 1920s, he began working in a neo-traditional style inspired by Renaissance “old masters” like Raphael and Titian, and he turned against modern art and broke ties with the Surrealists.
De Chirico’s later career was inconsistent and occasionally controversial. He worked in a variety of formats from theater design to book illustration to sculpture, but his style was subject to unpredictable changes. His reputation was damaged when falsely dated copies of his works, by both de Chirico himself and forgers, infiltrated the art market.

SOURCE: https://www.biography.com/people/giorgio-de-chirico-9246949

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/giorgio-de-chirico

Giorgio de Chirico – La Casa Museo

SENSUAL PAINTER FRANCINE VAN HOVE

Francine Van Hove draws and paints young women. Her models participate search together with the artist the best poses that they must hold for hours. Preparatory drawing sessions enable the painter to capture the casual gesture as well as its graphic and sculptural qualities.

Under an apparent simplicity, her everyday life scenes keep a kind of mystery. In a safe place, unconscious or unconcerned by their own beauty, young girls let themselves enjoy laziness or everyday pleasures: reading, having tea, daydreaming or sleeping. Sometimes pensive, other times melancholic, they forbid us the access to their inner life and stay in a way elusive. Francine Van Hove’s work reflects a feeling of impossibility of communication and a saving loneliness, as a retreat deliberately chosen to be protected from the noise of the world.

Influenced by Greek sculpture, Flemish painting and the Italian Renaissance, Francine Van Hove seeks to perpetuate the classical tradition of painting: her refined work brings a sensation of wonder through the play of light, the rendering of the textures and the richness of details. Her skillfully modelled bodies impose a dreamy harmony through the perfection of their confident gestures.

FRANCINE VAN HOVE YOUTUBE VIDEO

BIOGRAPHY :

http://www.artsper.com/en/contemporary-artists/france/3382/francine-van-hove

23 YEAR OLD FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR AND DESIGNER ;ANNYA KARINA MARTTINEN

She is from Canada but currently reside in Southern Ontario. Annya received her diploma in graphic design in 2013 but recently she spend most of her time painting & being the bunny mother of Oats, Peaches and Olive. Her work is mainly inspired by quiet everyday moments and vintage fashion. She mainly work in both traditional and digital mediums.
“My life is and has always ceased to be solitary, so a life of dreaming has greatly shaped my work. In this I become inspired by animals, plants, and the beautiful people I see in films. I have always been inspired by classic books and their delicate and intricate descriptions. My surroundings effect me greatly so I try hard to make sure my bedroom from which I work is always clean and filled with inspiration. I simply cannot work or be happy in a messy or dark space! I collect a lot of prints/postcards of my favorite illustrators, mainly Emily Martin. I seem to own so many of her prints! There’s also a lot of old fairytale illustrations from the 18th and 19th centuries on my walls. These eras and subject matter inspire me greatly. I also have a closet full of beautiful vintage items such as night-gowns, silky blouses, midi-skirts, cardigans and so on. They really have inspired me to paint clothing from different eras. My paintings of dreamy girls are, more often than not, in another time period fashion-wise”.

Annya Karina Marttinen

23 YEAR OLD FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR AND DESIGNER ;ANNYA KARINA MARTTINEN

DEBORAH DEWIT MARCHANT’S ART

Deborah Dewit was born March 28th,1956 in Portland, Oregon to naturalized Americans. Her father, mother infant brother arrived by ship in 1950 San Pedro , California via South America fron Holland.One side of her father’s family were etchers, illustrators and painters. On her mother’s side of family were Dutch plantation owners and British traders in the the Dutch East . Her father’s career in the gain business took her and her family tol ive in many parts of the U.S and all around the world. This varied and somewhat exotic backgrounded had a strong influence on Deborah’s professional yearnings.At the age of fifteen she found that the camera suited her quest and in her twenties set abour discovering the world with young eyes recording her travels with image and word. Her photographs received immediate praise she began the life of working as a artist in 1976.

BIOGRAPHY OF DEBORAH DEWIT

GREENSEA