PaintBlog

Dogs seem to feature prominently in Michael Cameron’s paintings, which seems appropriate considering how prominent a role they play in our lives (if you’ve never had a dog in your life, you’re missing out.)  

I will offer this warning for the squeamish though before you visit Skew Gallery to check out more of his work – there are some  vicious dog fights happening on several of these canvases.

Alyssa Monks paints the human form in many incredible ways. I suggest you put some time aside to explore them all.

There are many many layers to a Fiona Ackerman painting, and the resulting image is a wonderful mix of imagery combined and remixed to create a new whole that is more than the sum of it’s parts.

I was completely overwhelmed, in a very very good way, when I came across Paul Saari’s landscapes.  I want to call them apocalyptic landscapes, but I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate.  Maybe you should be the judge.

I was lucky enough to spend some time this weekend at The Artist Project.  It was a very good show, and will definitely inspire a few posts in the near future, the first of which being this one:

Take the time to visit Kyle Stewart’s site to enjoy the organic imagery in his paintings.  They are well worth the trip.

In his urban landscapes Ryan Reynolds has an uncanny ability to distill information, never abandoning representation, but achieving transformation. His paintings are both familiar and personal, and pretty darn great. Check them out here.

Amber Lia-Kloppel creates domestic scenes that feel very intimate, and quietly powerful.

Looking at her paintings I can’t quite tell if I’m being led into an agricultural playground, or an agricultural battleground, but what I do know is that Judith Berry’s work is fantastic.

Using snapshot photographs as inspiration Eileen MacArthur creates small-scale paintings that have a surprising amount of mood and atmosphere in them.  Going through the collection feels more like rummaging around through somebody’s memories rather than their photo albums, and I think that elevation occurs during the physical transformation of the image from photo to canvas. In this digital world of simple and limitless reproduction, you just can’t beat the power of a unique handmade object.

Inspired by the Canadian landscape, Shannon Craig has produced a great deal of fantastic work, much of which you can see here.