Tapumes

Henrique Oliveira uses recycled “Tapumes” (sidings made of plywood in english) to create his sculpture and installations. Full of texture, color and movement, these pieces reflect a work path he chose while in school.

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80 in x 160 in - From the Filigree series - Acrylic and sumi ink on hanging cut papers

I seem to be on a kick for revisiting artists that I have previously featured.  I have really enjoyed looking back through old posts and finding how each artists work has evolved. I featured a piece, Growth I, by Katherine Mann in 2008, and I was thrilled to find new work from her in my inbox.

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Ink and watercolour on paper, 5x7 inches

I first featured Marc Johns’ drawing, the boxes we put people in, in 2008 and I am so happy that I took the time to revisit his website.  Johns’ comedic drawings are as creative as they are funny.

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Mooi ‘West - Group Exhibition - Academe Minerva Groningen

I was pleasantly surprised to find Lennard Schuurmans’ work in my inbox last week. Schuurmans creates some amazing, playful murals and illustrations.

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Erik Natzke is an interactive designer pushing to blur the lines between technology and creativity.  Armed with his keen design and programming skills, Natzke renders amazing works of digital art.

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Untitled 514 Les Diaboliques

These intense paintings are by artist Francoise Nielly.  Nielly paints mostly with oils on canvas using various palette knife techniques.

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Michelle's Place - from Grand Theft Auto IV - Oil on cradled wood panel 30" x 30"

There is nothing new about artists taking inspiration from other created works, but there is something here worth discussing.  People tend to connect with landscape or cityscape paintings of places they have seen before and that is part of the beauty in them.  A painting of the Streets of Charleston is going to connect with me in a way that it cannot connect with someone who has never been there.

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Sleepwalk - 2009 oil on canvas 24" x 30"

Finding Marion Pecks work on the web was a wonderful surprise!

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With the year drawing to a close we naturally reflect on the past year. 2009 has been kind to this little blog and I look forward to what 2010 may bring. I aggregated a list of the 20 most visited posts from 2009 from the stats and this is what I found. Oddly enough, some were pretty recent, and some were from last year. I decided to include the ones from last year as well since I have many new readers.

Number 20

Barack Obama - by Shawn Barber

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Wire Drawing Exercise

Example from save-janos.net - this example has been placed on a painted acrylic background
With this exercise you are not going to be drawing at all. All you need is some wire and a pair of pliers with cutters. My favorite wire for this exercise is tie wire and you can get it almost any hardware store. The idea is to explore shapes and lines that you create by bending the wire. This exercise will force you to focus more on the line and less on the “drawing.” The nature of the wire also makes it more difficult to create tight corners. Don’t fight this and allow the properties of the wire to influence your piece.

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