Art Hound

Denise Nestor (via wolf eyebrows) is a graphic designer and illustrator from Dublin whose portraits are totally kick-ass. The expressions she captures are so real and intense it’s a bit off-putting. I love the combination of really detailed line drawings and bright abstracted textiles.

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Realist portraits by St. Louis-based artist and mother of three Ali Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh’s story is unusual – as a young child she lost most of her hearing and views the incident as a “blessing in disguise” that brought with it a keen appreciation for body language and the visual world as a whole. These observations are at the heart of her paintings in which she marries a hyper-realist painting style with the palpable presence of the human spirit.

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It’s in the moment of hesitation when one moves into the interior space of thought that I find my inspiration. I’m constantly in a state of awareness about the world taking in the imagery, colors, and patterns that to my eye are compositions of settings and people. This keeps my perception enriched by each and every moment. I believe that every situation in life has potential as a great work of art.

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And for those who may be wondering about Cavanaugh’s process, she applies watercolor to plaster panels, also known as neo fresco secco.

It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful or poignant depiction of emotional duress than these breathtaking paintings by (Korean?) artist Kwon Kyung Yup. Yup’s realist portraits are devoid of typical details: her girls are naked and literally blend into the silent, fleshy abstracted world around them. What Yup excludes she more than makes up for in perfectly nailing the girls’ expressions and body-soul symbolism. (via Booooooom!)

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The girls in the paintings disclose this sense of trauma. It is revealed by the pure, snow-white, sterile space… by weeping, bloodshot eyes, by closed or vacant eyes as if seeing through themselves, by staring straight ahead as if accusing someone of something, and by expressionless faces as if not to show her true heart…

It is said that the eye is the window of the soul. The artist uses the eye as an active means to convey emotions. For example, a patch over one eye indicates a sense of loss… Tears are also introduced as an auxiliary device: they not only are a more direct means to deliver emotions but also symbolize the nullification (purification?) of emotion. Kwon gives these condensed tears forming as elaborate crystals a special meaning: they purify, heal, and sublime emotions…

The bandages covering the part of the girls’ faces… hide not the wounds in the body but the those remembered by the body, those stored as a memory in the body, those spiritual and ontological. Like eye patches, bandages protect them from outside stimuli, and cover, embrace, take care of, console, and cure the injuries remembered by the body (the mind sometimes forgets hurts but those remembered by the body are never forgotten). – Kho Chung-Hwan (Art Critic)

This weekend I was in Rockland, Maine and saw some gorgeous art on the more traditional side at the beautiful Dowling Walsh Gallery. Three artists really stood out to me: Stephen Hodecker, Bo Bartlett and Scott Kelley. These three realists paint prototypical American subjects that exemplify core American ideals of hard work, simplicity and natural beauty. Unfortunately, these paintings are beyond the reach of most modest art buyers.

Stephen Hodecker, who paints primarily with oil and egg tempura, was influenced by European and American realists, in particular Homer, Hopper, Sargent and Wyeth.

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Bo Bartlett has been compared to American realists Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth, whom the artist filmed for a documentary in the late 80’s. Bartlett splits his time between Pennsylvania, an island in Maine and Washington State. The stunning brunette in many of Bartlett’s paintings is his wife, Betsy Eby.

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Scott Kelley lives on an island off the Coast of Maine and earlier in his career worked for the artist, Julian Schnabel. He grew up in a rural camp in the Adirondack Mountains and was inspired by the remaining isolated communities in the area. He paints with watercolor and gouache.

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