It really doesn’t seem to matter what her subject matter is, Angela Bentley Fife brings incredible brushwork and a refined colour palette to every one of her paintings. Â Her site doesn’t appear to have been updated in a while, but she remains fairly active over on her blog. Enjoy!
I do love the holidays,  but they usually mean a lot of  frantic traveling and visiting and eating and more traveling and then some more eating, so at this point in the year I can usually do with a period of calm.  Todd Bonita’s serene images of the New Hampshire sea coast are just the thing for that. Hope you had a great weekend!
The thing that hooked me on Claire Sherman’s portraits of the natural world were her loose but deliberate brushstrokes. Â For me, creating brushstrokes that possess both those qualities has always been one of the biggest challenges, so I usually take a little extra time to appreciate it in other’s work.
William Steiger reduces his subject matter, usually man-made objects, into simplified geometric forms and stylized colours, and then places these objects into stark white backgrounds. The end results are iconic, quietly stunning, and filled with an odd sense of mystery.
Human figures are noticeably absent in Jake Longstreth’s painted landscapes of manufactured playgrounds and boxy outlet malls. Â A hopeful look at a future society that no longer flocks to the familiar regardless of value (or lack thereof), or a bleak outlook on the death of the individual in the wake of corporate driven consumerism? Â Maybe neither, you decide.
While it may be safe to say that the natural world is a consistent source of inspiration for Jennifer Walton’s paintings, she makes a pretty good case for just how limitless the possibilities are when you choose to mine nature for your source material. Her “Google Earth” inspired landscapes might be my favourites, if I were forced to pick favourites.
It’s tempting to allow Eric Zener’s impressive hyper-realist technique to become the focus of my appreciation of his work, but in truth, there is something I appreciate far more; Zener’s uncanny ability to layer complex emotional states into frozen moments of seeming tranquility. The swimmers and sun-bathers in his paintings may find themselves in idyllic settings, but their minds are elsewhere, transfixed in states of introspection. The end result of this contrast, for me, is almost hypnotic.
You could argue that Karla Wozniak is a cultural archivist as much as she is an artist (or is that the same thing?) While I find myself completely drawn in by her paintings, I’m equally repelled by the accuracy of Wozniak’s depictions of urban and suburban landscapes. Or maybe I’m just repelled by how ‘at home’ I feel in the landscapes she has created. Â It might be time to get out of the city for a short vacation.
The people who populate Brett Amory’s paintings seem to have been stranded in a strange, ethereal landscape. Â Some individuals appear to be simply passing through, while others, it would seem, live in this dream-like world permanently, though nobody seems entirely enthused about being where they are. It’s a great reflection on how much of our own lives are spent in a similar state of waiting and wandering.
There seems to be a lot of conflict in Tamara Muller’s works.  I suppose it would be more accurate to say there are a lot of conflicting elements in her work; beautifully rendered skin and faces on enlarged and misshapen heads, frail bodied girls that emanate a sense of power and intensity, soft and translucent colours that speak of innocence used to render scenes of  slightly demented sexuality.
The conflict continues outside the canvas, I find myself alternating between a state of wrought fascination and being made to feel as though I’ve become an unwilling voyeur. It’s an impressive trick that Muller pulls off painting after painting.
