paintings

May 2, 2012 by Tara 3 Comments

Artur Akopjan‘s work gives me pleasure and inspiration in the same way that the paintings of Jennifer Mercede, Dominique Fortin and Sabrina Ward Harrison do.

The backgrounds are as interesting as the foregrounds, and each painting works as a whole without being either too busy or too quiet. There is also a naive quality which I love.

I particularly enjoy the saturated colours, the drawn and written elements and the patchiness.

I didn’t find too much detail about Akopjan, but the paintings speak for themselves anyway. I found this though:

Creation is equal to complete freedom; everything is acceptable when it comes to art. Artur Akopjan has no special expectations from the viewers.

‘Everything is acceptable when it comes to art’ ~ I like this.

Here is the artist with one of his paintings:

And one of my favourites of his:

Filed Under: artists, love it Tagged With: artists, artur akopjan, inspiration, paintings

October 3, 2011 by Tara 1 Comment

In keeping with the theme of my re-emerging love for figurative art, have a look at these paintings by Jylian Agustlin.

She is a Californian artist and the images I’ve chosen here do not do justice to the breadth of her talent.

She can do landscapes, stitched images, figurative, abstract and architectural work; she’s even done a series on the Fibonacci mathematical theories. Diverse, to say the least!

What I love about this, apart from getting to look at beautiful art, is that seeing an artist’s website covering such a broad range is one of those things that makes me feel I have ‘permission’ to embrace diversity in my own work. I’m still learning on the giving myself permission thing, so I love it quite a lot when I find someone else to do it for me.

From her website we learn:

Jylian uniquely combines the effects of modern technology with traditional techniques. While painting in acrylic and oil paints, her artwork often conveys the same complex layered effects possible in computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Gustlin experiments with a variety of materials to discover their effects. Working with two-part epoxy resin, oil and acrylic paints, charcoal, wax, gold leaf, pastel and graphite on board, Gustlin draws, paints, scratches on her surfaces.

I really love this one below; the simplicity and beauty of the figure, its wings and position on the piece, the different elements used, the text, the colours, everything:

I’ve been very busy enjoying the Indian Summer that suddenly arrived and done no painting for what must be coming up for three weeks now, which is very unsual for me. It bothers me not one tiny bit! But looking at these luscious, textural, colourful paintings is helping me ease back in. Or it will do. At some point.

Filed Under: art, love it, painting Tagged With: artist, figurative painting, jylian gustlin, love it, painter, paintings

September 3, 2011 by Tara 3 Comments

I am drowning deliciously in colour.

Clara Fialho‘s work sings to me, a loud and happy song. So much colour and energy and vibrance! I can look and look at her paintings and see all kinds of tiny wonders which together make me feel like leaping round the room.

It’s a colour EXPLOSION! True, sometimes you want quiet, and white spaces, and places to rest your eyes. But sometimes, sometimes you want work like this that gets right up in your face and sings very loudly.

{this one is my fave. this will no doubt surprise you}

I haven’t found out much about Clara beyond her “ever self-editing” artist statement, which gives some insight into her feelings and thoughts about her work:

“My work is intended to take the viewer away from the world of thought. Most of the time it is process oriented, sometimes containing elements from dreams. It reveals universal forms, which are believed to be innately present in every human being….Most importantly, it should leave them with something positive.“

In my humble fellow-artist opinion: mission accomplished.

Filed Under: art, colour, love it Tagged With: artist, clara fialho, love it, paintings

August 22, 2011 by Tara 8 Comments

I discovered Sara Matson Westover via Pinterest.

I can’t seem to find a site for her apart from this one, which is a gallery.

But that’s ok because I think her paintings speak for themselves, although I am always curious about the artist behind the work.Her paintings are described as ‘water media and graphite on paper’.

And her themes seem to be circles (yay!), and sometimes animals and birds and cages. Also bunting. As ever, I love the drawn elements. I love that whole spontaneous, impromptu feel.

Sara’s work reminds me of Sabrina Ward Harrison’s. I always wonder what is going through the mind of the artist who puts random numbers, letters, or seemingly meaningless squiggles and shapes into their work. I do it myself sometimes but that doesn’t help!

Do they all mean something? Or do they just ‘appear’ on the page, using the artist to bring them forth and make them visible?Whatever they mean it doesn’t really matter, when you can just look at them and enjoy how they make you feel.

Filed Under: art, love it, painting on paper, paintings Tagged With: artist, love it, paintings, sara matson westover

August 17, 2011 by Tara 5 Comments

After what felt like many weeks but was in fact maybe two at most, I suddenly and unexpectedly started a painting on canvas the other day.

I had an image in my head of what it would look like; the kind that dances around in your brain and won’t leave you alone even when you’re trying to read something you really want to read.

In the end I had to put down the book and just go and paint the damn thing to get some peace! (I suppose this is good practice for having offspring…)

Of course it looks nothing like what was in my head, which was red by the way. Although some of the shapes are similar. And I don’t know why all these images have curved corners (I have to resize them so I did it experimentally in a batch and this just happened), but I like it!So my ingredients are oil pastels (my new best friends), acrylics and some wall paint. Oh and gesso.The painting is entirely intuitive and intentionally abstract, although if you feel like reading leaves ~ or anything else ~ into it that’s fine! I’m very interested in the idea of layers beneath the white which give it depth but don’t show as part of the painting. Like ghosts of an old painting perhaps, there but not there.My good friend gesso helps me do this. There is a lot of white space in this painting; I think I just needed some quiet, although straight after I did the loudest, most vibrant painting ever so who knows what my subconscious is up to. At this point I got a bit carried away with the orange; I do so love orange right now, but then after I did it I changed my mind about the quantity…

…some gesso and a piece of masking tape later, and it is finished for now.

{My computer hates me today so goodness only knows what this image will look like in the post/on different monitors. I am going to break something if I have to continue to work with the instransigent beast right now so I’m going to leave it as it is and go and work out how my new printer works. Plus chocolate.}

Filed Under: acrylic painting, mixed media painting Tagged With: abstract, aqua, blue, mixed media painting, oil pastels, paintings

August 13, 2011 by Tara 4 Comments

My favourite sentence to say to myself lately {after ‘girl, you need some chocolate; let’s get some’}, is “you never know what’s just around the corner”. It makes a space for anything at all to occur, if you stay open to the infinite possibilities.

And it seems by saying it like an affirmation, over and over, all sorts of things have started zooming round the corner to meet me. The opportunity to share some group gallery space on the seafront with my friend Penny is just such a thing.

I posted some images of my recent paintings on paper on Facebook, and Penny immediately asked me to ring her. She had just acquired some space at the JAG Gallery and was wondering if I’d like to share.

A bit of a no brainer, you might say!
We are right at the end by the door with a view of the beach across the road, which is lovely.

The space is also a working studio for several artists; when I went down there to hang my paintings there was a a really great feeling of creativity going on. I’m more of a loner than a group person but I enjoyed the collaborative feel of the place.

I still have work to take down there; at the moment it’s just three of the paintings, a couple of prints and some cards, but once I’ve worked out how to make my new Epson printer work there will be more prints, and maybe some small canvases too.What is also great is that this is ongoing, so it’s not confined to a month or a couple of weeks and gives me a real opportunity to sell my work.

So that’s my advice for the day. Keep reminding yourself that you never know what’s going to happen next, stay open to all opportunities, and see what happens.

Filed Under: art, exhibition Tagged With: art, gallery, jag gallery, opportunities, paintings, penny oakley