Painting

April 25, 2020

Expressive Hyperrealistic Hand Paintings Highlight the Personality at Our Fingertips

Given their complex anatomy, hands are often considered one of the most difficult subjects to draw. Artist Javier Arizabalo Garcia, however, manages to capture the expressive language of hands in his hyperrealistic paintings. On each canvas, he renders a posed hand so supple that you'd think it was a photograph. Based in Spain, Garcia received formal fine art training in his Basque hometown of Irun and at the University of Bilbao.

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April 8, 2020

Vibrant Bird Paintings Capture the Beauty of Feathered Friends in Flight

Capturing a bird mid-flight is difficult enough with a camera, but English artist Jamel Akib manages to do so with oil paint. From hummingbirds to blue tits, each vibrant painting beautifully captures the energetic flutter of birds through thick brushstrokes and expressive mark-making. Akib has a background in illustration, having previously worked for the London Observer newspaper while still a student at art college.

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March 23, 2020

Poignant Paintings Depict Land Animals Half-Submerged in Rising Sea Water

Known for her hyperrealistic animal paintings, Portland-based artist Lisa Ericson is back with a new series of work that defies the natural order of the animal kingdom. Titled Islands, Ericson’s latest string of surreal paintings is a continuation from her previous Mobile Habitats and Border Crossing series. Each piece highlights our ever-changing climates by visualizing land animals half-submerged in rising waters, while marine life swims and grows around their feet.

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March 12, 2020

Dynamic Palette Knife Portraits Beautifully Balance Order with Chaos

Artist Françoise Nielly creates dynamic portraits that find order in chaos. Using vibrant oil pigment and a variety of palette knives, she depicts her subjects' eyes, noses, and lips among angled strokes and layers of neon paint. At first glance, the paintings read more abstract than figurative. But thanks to Nielly's masterful handling of the palette knife, we can easily see the features emerge through the mounds of scraped-on texture—ultimately bringing their humanity into focus.

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My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.