visual arts blog, painting, drawing, sculpture, illustration and more!
Today’s images are by Manchester, United Kingdom based artist James Whitlam, aka Rubens Oscroft. It appears that Mr. Whitlam prefers to keep a low profile as I couldn’t find out much about him online. He lists Hogarth, Wyndham Lewis, Goya as artistic influences. To see more of this intriguing work, visit Rubens Oscroft’s profile on Deviant Art.
Israeli photographer (conceptual artist) Gilad Benari was born in Haifa, and had the usual Israeli upbringing – high school and then three years in the army. After the army, he became a copywriter, composing poetry and short stories on the side. In 2002, Gilad discovered photography and began combining his writing with the photos he took trying to “explore photography in a conceptual sense, to help me express and complement my writing.”
Recently, Benari has created a series of presentations called “A Different Look At Israel” to tell the stories of Israel that many never hear about…”to tell the world Israel is not just war, conflicts, and political unbalance… Israel is a beautiful country with culture, people, and everyday life, a place like the one they would like to live in. The second reason is to simply use the world around me to share my different approach to photography as an art.”
To find out more about Gilad Benari visit Deviant Art.
Sources: Broowaha
Russian painter/collage artist Igor Skaletsky studied at the Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute and began his adventures in collage only a few years ago.
Skaletsky works as an illustrator and when possible he makes it a part of his professional work. He works in both digital and analogue techniques, but prefers traditional collage because it gives him the ability to mix it with painting.
“Collage for me is a technique that widens possibilities to express myself. I think photography and painting perfectly complement each other and combining them, one can achieve an effect which is impossible in ”pure” traditional technique. Collage is unique in its ability to organically combine things which, at first glance, are absolutely incompatible and do not represent any artistic value in themselves. I like the moment when isolated pieces of paper suddenly start “playing” with each other when I put them in the common living space of collage.”
Recently, Skaletsky and drummer Evgeniy Labich, along with Russian indie animation team Self Burning, teamed up to make a stop motion animation film called “Piece” that represents the stages of making a collage.
To see more of Igor Skaletsky’s intriguing work, visit his profile (igorska) on Deviant Art.
Los Angeles based sculptor and specialty prop artist Tim Baker studied fine arts at Porterville College in California and Set/Lighting design and photo sculpture at Stephen’s College in Columbia, Missouri. He has created puppets and other creatures for film (“Something About Mary”, “Every Dog has his Day”), and for television and commercials. He is also a special effects make-up artist, model maker, graphic artist, and photographer.
These steampunk books are four in a set of six for a graphic novel he is creating. Each book took between 40 – 150 hours to produce and are made of leather, brass, stainless steel, aluminum, river pearls, rivets, hand made paper and parchment, among other things. To see more of Baker’s work visit his profile on Deviant Art.
Joe MacGown (aka Neogothic-Jam) was born in 1964 in Maine and moved to Mississippi when he was ten. His interest in art began early and as a child, he spent his time collecting insects, exploring nature, and drawing everything in sight. MacGown attended the Memphis College of Art for a while but it didn’t stick. Instead, for a few years, he worked the night shift at a grocery store and did some freelance artwork on the side. Since 1988, MacGown has worked at the Mississippi State Entomological Museum as a scientific illustrator and assistant curator.
MacGown’s true interest is in the “interrelationship of the environment and all forms of the animate and inanimate” and says “As I have studied nature over the course of my life, I have come to realize that every little thing we do affects something else, whether it be negative or positive. I greatly enjoy playing with positive and negative space, the juxtaposition of seemingly unnatural elements, and filling an area with as much as possible.” MacGown describes his style as “neogothic surrealism or subconscious meandering… a blend of fantasy, surrealism, and visionary art.”
To see more of Joe MacGown’s “semi-strange” art, visit JoeMacGown.com or check out his profile on Deviant Art.
Rovi Jesher Salegumba is a Phillipean painter and a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. Jesher has already defined a style that won him first prize at the 2006 Shell National Student’s Art Competition (oil/acrylic category) for his painting titled “Become”.
See more of Rovi Jesher’s work on Deviant Art or at Multiply.com.
Polish artist Leszek Kostuj. Kostuj graduated from the Pedagogy and Art Department at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Although he prefers oil and acrylic painting, Kostuj’s mediums also include drawing, and traditional and digital graphics. Starting from small realistic drawings, Kostuj’s paintings are inspired by surrealism and figurative abstraction.
“My art is in constant change, I am in search of the forms of artistic communication that would be optimal for me. When I begin to paint, it is quite frequent that I do not ponder over the final effect. Only when on the surface of the painting, the emerging patches, lines, colours begin to coalesce, the imagination rouses and provides an impulse to further artistic release. At this stage of creation, what begins to appear is ideas, visions, and concepts – all in order to create a work that is a fulfilment of my artistic and aesthetic needs”
To see more of Leszek Kostuj’s work, visit his profile on Deviant Art or his website at Kostuj.com
You Monday Mix!
A while back, I used to feature an artist a week from the website Deviant Art. That practice somehow got left by the wayside over the months, but I’ve decided to bring it back in the form of a group feature. My new weekly post will contain images I have found inspiring on Deviant Art and other artist portfolio sites.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge image and for a link to the artist’s profile. Enjoy everyone!
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Reminiscence_ll © Minjae Lee
I love this new work by Korean painter/illustrator Minjae Lee. Lee is 21 years old, self-taught, and has just started selling his pieces. To see more of Lee’s intricate creations, see his profile on Deviant Art.