Peter Yuill

I just discovered the work of Peter Yuill and am totally wowed!  Apparently he is a Sheridan Illustration Graduate and now lives in Hong Kong and does incredible work with ink.  Just take a look at this stunning work that he is still working on now:

He does very nice perspective drawings in ink as well:

Peter Yuill's Blog

Laurie Skantzos

I first saw Laurie Skantzos at the West Hamilton Artist Tour. Her work is inspired by wild gardens, urban landscapes and gritty graffiti and strives to make the invisible visible. She incorporates a wide variety of materials and media in her work. Japanese paper and tissues, powdered pigments, lino block printing, acrylic paint and oil sticks are some of her favorites. She is showing at the upcoming One-of-a-Kind Show, so look for her work there!

Here is what she says about her work:
"The process of creating a painting, watching as it unfolds and seeing it as a finished product is both exciting and meditative for me. This duality that I experience in my engagement with the work interests me in other areas as well. Order and chaos vie for dominance; beauty gives way to decay only to emerge once again, deliberation retreats as intuition takes over. I find that the act of painting eventually reveals to me what is really going on in my inner world even as I react with or against the outer world, searching for inspiration.

I'm interested in organic life on all levels, as well as expansion and procreation. As I get older, I seek to break open and expand on my experiences and ideas rather than begin to shut down in complacency. My painting is an expression of that and also an investigation."

Laurie Skantzos

Mathew Borrett

Thanks to Jonathan for introducing me to the work of Mathew Borrett!  He is an artist from right here in Ontario, and a graduate of OCAD.  I love his drawings of small nooks, crannies and rooms.  This is what Mathew Borrett has to say about his work:

From a very early age I used to have frequent dreams about finding hidden rooms between rooms in my house. Usually some facet of my fears or desires would be present in these rooms. As a Lego fanatic, I'd often find fantastic new Lego sets I didn't know existed (which made waking up a disappointment). Later we moved into an old farmhouse with lots of nooks and crannies and a basement that often flooded. It underwent a lot of renovation over the 17 years we lived there, and I was always fascinated when a wall was removed or temporarily breached and you could pass from one room to another in a new way. The scope of the dreams expanded to include strange gaps and holes and secret shafts that dropped away into spooky abysses. Sometimes I'd explore basements beneath the basement, or attics beyond the attic. I think I've probably explored a thousand different dream versions of that old house.

Mathew Borrett's Website

Juliet Jancso

I came across the porcelain sculpture work of Juliet Jancso a few weeks ago at the Mad & Noisy Gallery in Creemore, Ontario.  Her show was called "Embarkation" and featured white porcelain sculptures based on ships and boats found in 12th and 13th century manuscripts.

From Jancso's website:
My exploration of medieval illuminated manuscripts continues, with much delight. The images I find there have been the inspiration for a series of sculptures - the most recent being a flotilla of ships. I have created them in porcelain, a material I chose for its bright whiteness which I have then highlighted with gold leaf."

Intrigued by her work, I contacted the artist.  She explained her work a bit further, notably her stylistic choices: 

I like the understatement of small highlights of gold leaf. The preciousness of real gold leaf, and the fact that gold was very frequently used in the manuscripts add to my appreciation of it.  

I was lead to the manuscripts when seeking out examples of proportions that differ from the norm.   I got hooked by those images and as I studied them closely I became fascinated by their history

Bede’s Life and Miracles of
St. Cuthbert, Durham
c. 1200

The Golf Book, Bruges
c. 1520-30

Luttrell Psalter, East Anglia, c.1330-40
Lower margin of page

Juliet Jancso's Website

Kate Rivers Collage

I want to share with you another amazing post from my new favourite art blog, Art, Artists, and Galleries.  I highly encourage you to subscribe to this blog, as the art is fresh and the writing is very insightful!   This time it is the work of Kate Rivers who creates very unusual collages of birds nests, subject matter that I love and that has appeared in my own work in the past.

From Art, Artists, and Galleries:
"What other animal is known for creating collages? A bird, of course.Kate Rivers knows this and reflects this in her work. These nest works caught me off guard, because I didn't even think about this fact about birds collaging until I saw her work. But enough about birds. Kate Rivers work is attractive as a collage, because she is taking a fresh approach to an art form. I mean, typically if you have seen one collage you seen them all, but Rivers really shakes it up with a more representational approach, rather than something purely abstract or something that uses to much of the recognizable part of the images in the collage. Not Rivers, she plays with these cutouts and creates an amazing composition of strips of paper.

On her website, I found a very eloquent artist statement.  Here is a section of it, where she explains her source material and her symbolism of the nest:

"I collage fragments of these things that I collect: maps, notes, cancelled stamps, old books, children's drawings, clothing labels, love letters, buttons and pins and weave them together as a bird constructs a nest. I use the image of the bird's nest as metaphor. The nest is a symbol for home and that space becomes synonymous with memory, loss and nostalgia. I use maps frequently because they link the body to the land and to the physical space represented. The individual is divided and classified within these geographic spaces. The map represents my struggle ,a type of resistance and a search for ownership of self, separate and unique from what I see as a deluge of banality of images within our culture. However, I understand that separateness only exists within my own idea of myself.

The collage elements that I use are deliberately selected from that which would have been or was thrown away, discarded or set aside. I specifically include things that are given to me and things that reflect that day or week that the piece was created. I work on paper, wood and canvas. Objects are sewn, nailed, or glued in place." 

Kate Rivers website link

Beatriz Milhazes

Another blog post from my new favourite art blog, Art, Artists and Galleries:


"Brazil artist Beatriz Milhazes is really tapping in a trend in contemporary art where graphic elements overlay abstract work in a mix and match of information. So many artists are working in this kind of mixture that I wish I was cleaver enough to give this group of art a name.Really, this work is abstract and popular graphic images. She uses images that reflect simplistic versions of Brazilian cultural images. Sometimes decorative, this style of art piles up graphic upon image of graphic with minimal elements or abstract gestures laid under or over the designs. Two artists that I have seen uses this style is Nancy Brown and Murielle White."

                                       Murielle White

                                       Metropolitain

                                       2010

                                       Oil and mixed media on canvas 

                                       44.5" x 60"           

Ben Terry

Thanks to Jumana for recommending an amazing art blog called "Art, Artists, and Galleries".  Written by Todd Camplin, who is from Texas, it highlights a nice diverse range of artists and intelligently writes about their work. Perfect source for inspirational artists for your own work!  Here I'd like to show you an artist by the name of Ben Terry that I found there.  Since we are covering of multiple self-portraits, here is an example of an artist working with that right in their art!

Here is what Todd wrote about Ben Terry:


"Ben Terry, what can I say, but a real rising star. In a world of self absorbed people, the rise of memoirs, and artists interested in self portrait, Terry jumps into this world head first, but with a skill that not only reflect the society he is in, but also with a strange sense of irony and the right amount of self-criticism that make the work more than just an easy surface reading. Here what I said at ModernDallas.net, for the "110 Degrees" show at Cohn Drennan Contemporary.

"Benjamin Terry takes a more cubist approach to his figures. His paintings play with multiple self-portrait perspectives. The paintings use a limited muted color palate that blands out any attempt to create emotional content through color. We are forced to draw our emotional response through
the self-portrait rendered figure. A risky move with a powerful payoff."

And here is Ben Terry's Artist Statement, taken from his own website:


My current work combines representational images and the chaos of ephemeral composition. I play with various thoughts and emotions that pass through my mind at any given moment. Working with memory, fantasy, dreams and time, I use multiple selves to create a narrative sequence that reflect on ideas of internal conflict, self doubt and emotional trauma. My painted figures escape the confines of naturalism. Like a memory or dream, parts of the narrative become blurred or fragmented--and the original thought is always transformed. Their evolutions, whether through multiplicity, incompleteness or obliteration, imply that my subjects are odd fragments of a half-forgotten memory.


Ben Terry's Website

Da Vinci Sketchbook Images

I found a good resource of Leonardo Da Vinci images, mostly drawings from his sketchbooks.  Check it out and get inspired!

Leonardo Da Vinci Images

Paper Art

I found this article on the diverse ways artists are using just paper to create incredible art, including sculpture and altered books!  It just goes to show that you can keep it simple and use simple materials to great effect!  Check it out:

You can find more here at the original blog post I found these at:
Eye Popping Ways Artists Use Paper

Seeing Faces: Strangers in the Mirror

Radiolab is currently my favourite podcast.  It is free and can be subscribed to in order to listen on your computer or on your iPod or your phone.  This short episode is relevant to faces and self portraits and is fascinating!  It features Chuck Close, the famous artist that paints enormous portraits.   In this episode, Chuck Close describes how he is actually "face blind", which is that he is unable to recognize and remember faces, even of people who are close to him!  Fascinating talk, have a listen!

Here is a write up from the Radiolab page.

"Oliver Sacks, the famous neuroscientist and author, can't recognize faces. Neither can Chuck Close, the great artist known for his enormous paintings of ... that's right, faces.

Oliver and Chuck--both born with the condition known as Face Blindness--have spent their lives decoding who is saying hello to them. You can sit down with either man, talk to him for an hour, and if he sees you again just fifteen minutes later, he will have no idea who you are. (Unless you have a very squeaky voice or happen to be wearing the same odd purple hat.)

In this podcast, we listen in on a conversation Robert had with Chuck and Oliver at Hunter College in New York City as part of the World Science Festival. Chuck and Oliver tell Robert what it's like to live with Face Blindness and describe two very different ways of coping with this condition, which may be more common than we think.

You can go to this page and download the episode and read more about it:

"Strangers in the Mirror" Radiolab Episode

or listen to it here:

"Hieronymus Bosch,  (c. 1450 - August 9, 1516) was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings."  If you appreciate detail, dark work, check out Bosch's intricate, twisted paintings, painted 500 or so years ago!  

Triptych of Garden of Earthly Delights (right wing) (detail 2) c. 1500

Tondal's Vision

Hieronymus Bosch

Monumental Sculpture by Janet Echelman : TED Talk

TED Talks are an amazing source of inspiration.  It features "riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the World."   "TED" is short for "Technology, Engtertainment, Design".  You can find talks by innovators, inventors, artists, architects, musicians, and more.

In this video, Janet Echelman talks about her amazing massive sculpture.

From TED.com:

"Janet Echelman found her true voice as an artist when her paints went missing -- which forced her to look to an unorthodox new art material. Now she makes billowing, flowing, building-sized sculpture with a surprisingly geeky edge. A transporting 10 minutes of pure creativity."


TED Talks

Great Art History Resource: Artchive

I just wanted to share a great website that you can use in your art history research.  It is called "Mark Harden's Artchive" and while the navigation of the site is a little clumsy, the content is top notch.  The information is sourced and there are high quality images for you to look at, print out etc.There are now more than 2,000 scans from over 200 different artists on the website!

I usually will google a name of an artist and the word "artchive" to see if there is a page on this site and it brings me the link right to that page. 


Artchive

IWBs explained and IB Art Wiki

Below is a link to an IB Art Wiki with a ton of resources you can check out to help you along, answer your questions, look at examples, and participate by contributing and asking questions.Take a look at the presentation below, which is a great, concise explanation of what IWBs should be.IB Art: Workbooks

View more presentations from dsgran

I found this presentation on the IWB 101 page of the IB Art Wiki:

Workbook 101

Also take a look at the main IB Art Wiki page. Lots of great info!

IB Art Wiki

Bryce Huffman

Bryce is a local illustrator and artist, that does incredible work.  Check it out!
From his website:
"Born and raised in Hamilton, ON., Bryce has developed an artistic approach that balances between graphic, painterly and figurative. Texture and type are common in his work, as are a wide range of characters - both real and imagined. Having graduated from the Sheridan College Illustration Program, Bryce is now working on a number of gallery showings as well as freelance illustration."

Bryce Huffman

A different type of guerilla street installation

Miniature Sculpture placed on the street and photographed.  Another idea to inspire guerrilla art projects :)

This one has a mini mp3 player and speaker hidden inside

Little People

Little People Blog

AJ Fosik

Thanks Andrew for introducing me to AJ Fosik!  An amazing sculptor working with painted wood.  He designed the sculpture on the cover of the latest Mastdodon Album.

From Andrew:

Three favoutes of mine are "Embracing Stochasticity", In the "Teeth of Stupefying Odds" and "The Hunter" (above)

and here's a video of how he does it : 

It's a music Video, so if its not to your taste you can tun the sound off, but it's a pretty cool process.

AJ Fosik

50 Sketchbook Scans

If you want to get inspired to create amazing sketchbook pages, check out these amazing sketchbooks!

50 Sketchbook Scans

Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele (June 12, 1890  – October 31, 1918)  is one of my favourite artists of all time and was my absolute favourite back in high school.  His paintings and drawings of himself and of the naked models he drew are raw, expressive and full of emotion.  Living in Austria, he was a protege of Gustav Klimt.  He lead a rather tortured life and died at the young age of 28.

Egon Schiele Image Gallery

Dreamworlds on Canvas

Polish painter Jacek Yerka creates stunning dream worlds in his paintings, with lots of visual tricks and illusions.     Amazing painting technique as well!

Dreamworlds on Canvas

Keri Smith

Keri Smith is amazing!  Author of "This is Not a Book" and others, she writes a blog on creativity and has a lot of really interesting "outside the box" kind of ideas.  She is also an artist and illustrator.  Got artist block?  Check her out.  Here is one of her posts with 100 ideas:

Keri Smith's 100 ideas

Super Fertile Jewelry Design

From Chris G:
"This isn't really an art site perse, but I think its so amazing, especially the new collection i paticularrily love and it got me thinking about a geurillla art project. Kali is a jewlery designer but her work is very though provoking, political and culturally influenced. She also happens to be M.I.A.'s sister."

Super Fertile

James Jean

James Jean does some amazing illustrative work, with some really strong figure drawing.  Check him out!

PS. Welcome to Explorimenting! :)

James Jean