Brown Rice with Glass of Water

 The content is suggestive yet not in your face. The color palette is beautiful. I recently completed a still life of a white mug. Sounds easy right? Well it wasn’t. It was the hardest still life to do. Even harder? Glass and water. Which is why this specific painting stands out to me.

Still life with Pitcher and Pastel

The subtle pinks and yellows in this pitcher are so delightful…so SUPER FANTASTIC! Painters like Abbey make me wish I went to school for art instead of math…who uses math anyways?!?!

Even more impressive, is that Abbey Ryan does A PAINTING A DAY! It always amazes me when someone can finish a painting in one day, let alone a painting of a glass of water in one day. I’d love to see her progress (Abbey do a video!).SHe lives in Pilly and has been making a small oil painting each day since Sept. 23, 2007. OMG! Check out her blog and her website too! 

Avocado Half

I normally wouldn’t include a photograph in this blog, but rules are meant to be broken.

Anyways, back to her illustration. Here is a perfect example of her super fantastic work. Two Ships Passing is simple, but the tiny detail on these ships really make it interesting.

Two Ships Passing

Charles

I am also in love with her old people’s heads. In my Chubby series, I use vintage photographs as the subjects, and her old people heads on bird bodies reminds me of that. She captures the expressions so perfectly, and the juxtaposition lightens the mood.

I really admire her use of “white space.” EVery time I try to create a simple painting it ends up super detailed and complicated. I get in the way of myself I guess. HISSS however, has obviously mastered that.

Really a lot of fun! You should check out her other amazing stuff here.

Ikind of want to make out with Yellow Moon Studio’s paintings. Is that weird? 

Seriously, though I wish I could make minimalism work like this. The colors are obnoxiously super fantastic. They are vibrant but not over the top, they’re bold and subtle all at the same time, and they could go with pretty much ANY decor.

As a math major, I always notice proportions…and hers are quite delightful. They are a restrained extreme proportion…although that might be a contradiction of sorts…it makes sense in my head.

I am also quite jealous of her use of texture. I’ll have to get some tips from her because from her descriptions it sounds like she uses acrylics as well and I am not happy with the acrylic mediums I’ve used.

The use of numbers, squares, and rectangles is a sure sign that I will love an artist. So needless to say, I obviously love this painting! Look at the reds and the boxes!!! I realized this may sound dweeby to you…but its just in my nature. I can’t help it. I would definitely have an hour long make out session with this painting.

You should check out her shop for other cool stuff, but snatch it up while it’s there. they sell fast!

Droooool. I should take some cloud lessons from her. Besides her clouds and amazing landscape pastel, charcoal, and conte drawings…her still life(s) are eye popping. Painting red apples is like the hardest thing ever…and if you don;t believe me…TRY IT. Granny Smith apples? Easy? Grapefruit? Kind of hard. Red Apples? IMPOSSIBLE! Yet take a look at Amberas:

She is located in Halifax, which is where I was stranded for a week on 9/11. i was flying back from France and was mid flight when the attack occurred. i was fortunate enough to be stranded in such a beautiful place was so many amazingly generous people.

Check out Amberas shop!

The First thing that brought me to his shop was this:

It is so much like my “Arthurs Car” painting that it was creepy. Once I clicked into his shop I was spellbound.

Look at this gorgeous image! The character, the personality, the detail, the color… everything to me was perfect. When we move into our next house I decided to decorate the whole thing with etsy artists and this print from Mike will be one of the first ones to go up:

I normally post 2 photos for each artist but I have to post a third for Mike because this image always makes me almost cry. It’s called “It was time for chuck to learn” and describes it as “This illustration is an homage of sorts to the late great Charles M. Schulz. I imagined his lead character having learned to grow up, grow hair, dress nicely, and even learning to raise a child of his own, but never mastering the art of kite flying away from kite eating trees.”

CHECK OUT HIS SHOP!

Hailing from North Carolina, this artist (not sure if it’s a guy or a girl) has work ranging from landscapes to still lifes. I like the variation of items in the still lifes…they’re not your “average” things to paint…which makes each painting interesting. 

As a painter, I’m always amazed at artists who know how to make brush strokes work. In my own personal experienced with brush strokes, it is hard to know how to control them without making it look sloppy, which is why i stick to just thin layers of paint.  The brush strokes in the above “Clock Painting” are incredible in my  opinion.

OK well I’d write more but I’m being rushed out the door…I’ll write more about this amazing painter when I get back. Here’s one more painting I really enjoy – and to boot…it’s another artists with AWESOMELY horizontal canvases….an 8 by 24 canvas!!! Be still my heart!!!

Apparently she uses inked backgrounds and colored pencils…which is incredible! She’s only 24 years old and is a graphic artist by day, like me! How can you say no to this puppy?!?!?

You can tell her graphic design background has a huge influence on her work. The design elements make each piece more than just a drawing/painting.

Check out her shop!

This pool slide is one of my favorites….it’s half creepy and half enjoyable…are you going to go sliding into an empty pool and crack your head open…WHO KNOWS!!?

Combined with the lines and shapes from the cut up photos and canvas and other media she uses, her images are interesting over and over again.

Leah’s Three Hats is by far my favorite item in her shop. It’s crazy!!!!

Check out her shop for more amazing work!

I mean, seriously…how cool is this! A lot of his work has that “unfinished” feel to it which I wish I could pull off.

He has such a range of work, that some of it even leans a bit towards abstract/surrealist qualities

One day when I have a lot of money I’m going to buy all of his work.

Check out his Etsy Shop!

Mandy is from Canada and a lot of her imagery is indicative of her surroundings. From what i can remember, her husband takes the photos, and she works from those.

You can follow her progress on her personal blog…it’s a lot of fun to see the photos through the course of each painting. 

Her originals sell like hot cakes so if you see one, grab it up!!!!

this one is my favorite