Lu Cong

untitled  watercolor

untitled  watercolor

untitled  watercolor

untitled  watercolor

"Tabitha 11"  oil on panel  18" x 18"  2011

Lu Cong is well known for his haunting and hyper-realistic portraits of young people on the cusp of adulthood (usually girls, but not always). I've included one example here and you can see more on my previous post about his work back in July 2010. But recently he's been posting some sketches on his Flickr page. They're mostly line drawings and exhibit all the skill and and talent that is so abundantly obvious from his paintings. But scattered among them are these few watercolor studies. The loose gestural quality of the medium is a perfect counterpoint to his exquisitely controlled line work. The rough faces with their dark hollowed eyes and incomplete character lends them a quality you don't see in his very personal and empathetic portraits; for these are not portraits of individuals but sketches of animals, studies of the articulation of the limbs of naked primates. I think they're stunning. I don't know if he plans to do more of these or explore watercolor further at all, but maybe if we all bug him and say, "hey, these are awesome", he will and then we can see them and think, "dang, that guy is good" every time.
You can see more of his amazing portrait work on his website: lucong.tumblr.com
and to look all those sketches I mentioned plus other stuff go to the aforementioned Flickr Page.
Oh, and if you happen to be in New york city or Vail, CO go check out his work in person at Gallery Henoch or Vail International Gallery respectively.

Bill Frederick

"Two Lane Highway"  ink and watercolor  30" x 55.5"

"Beach and Vapor Trail"  watercolor  19.5" x 31"

"Migrating bird"  ink on paper  25" x 40"

"W.T.'s Gas for Less"  ink on paper  25" x 40"

"Sinking Ship"  ink on paper  13.25" x 25"

Photo realism is usually not my cup of tea as the saying goes. I prefer the artifice in art to be apparent, not disguised. But that is a big part of what makes Bill Frederick's work so astounding. While it may not be obvious from these digital images, the originals disguise nothing of the medium. Up close they are almost gestural with rich washes and broad confident brush work. The details only serve to snap the image together and create the illusion of photographic realism at a distance. Beyond that he has a terrific eye for composition, lighting and drama. While many of his scenes are of the most mundane moments, views from a car window, a random glance down a city sidewalk, etc., he is nonetheless able to capture something of those fleeting moments that strike us in some peculiar but meaningful way, but which we all too quickly flush out of our short term memory. The sinking ship above is an obvious exception. This is certainly not the kind of ordinary scene one might see just any old day. It is a moment of innately heightened drama. But the fact that his other scenes, objectively so ordinary, wield the same kind of cinematic impact speaks volumes about the power of his painting.
You can see more at his website: williamlewisfrederick.com
and there's more online or in person at Zg Gallery in Chicago.

Jonathan Wolstenholme

title unknown

title unknown

"Two Old Tomes"

title unknown

"Secret Life of a Crime Writer"

John Wolstenholme's love of old books is obvious, and clearly matched by his wit and talent. Each of his carefully crafted watercolors is a kind of portrait, of readers, of writers, of critics, of whole genres of books. Despite the antiquarian details,(nothing in his work appears to be any more recent than early twentieth century) they are distinctly contemporary in their surrealist humor. There really is not much more that needs to be said about these, for they speak quite clearly for themselves without any need for explication. One only needs to see them to appreciate them, and to recognize that just as there is no end to the art form of the book itself, Mr. Wolstenholme is unlikely to run out of material for his tremendously entertaining and engaging work. You can see just few more through his representatives at: portalpainters.co.uk
and one or two more at: hifructose.com
I don't know about you but I would love to see many many more.

Stef Cook

Sam, 2012  watercolor  5.25" x 8.5"

Ben, 2012  watercolor  5.25" x 8.5"

Yezen, 2012  watercolor  5.25" x 8.5"

CJ, 2012  Watercolor  3"x4"

Kent, 2012  Watercolor  3"x4"

Stef Cook is a portraitist. A good one.  Her profile watercolors go beyond mere recording and begin to say really emotive things about both the models and the artist. After looking through all of the portraits posted on her website, and getting a feel for each one I quickly began to feel as if I was intimately familiar with this group of friends and acquaintances. I began to have opinions about each one. This one I rather liked because he's sort of laid back, kind of a nerd and unpretentious. That one however is kind of an annoying sack when you really get down to it. Not that he's a jerk really, but he just gets on my nerves. OK I confess he seems perfectly nice but I just don't like him. This other guy is pretty cool but not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. So and so, on the other hand, is too smart for his own good and frankly I get a little tired of his left wing conspiracy theories. These people get into your head the way characters in a really well done TV show can. They make you feel like you're in on their lives and that is a remarkable achievement. The more abstracted portraits are fascinating too because the artist is still able to communicate so much with so little. I mean, come on, Kent is... well jeez, he's just such a Kent!
Go hang out with more of these guys at www.stefcook.com
And maybe one of these days Stef will introduce us to some of the gals in her gang. Oddly I had at first assumed Stef was a Stefan because all the portraits are of dudes. But she's a Stefanie. Go figure. You just can't judge gender from art. I like that.

Thanks to the folks over at www.vivianite.net for posting her work

Mark Thompson

"furrow" work on paper  14" x 20"  2011

"Furrow"  painting  33" x 46"  2011

"To Turn My Face Away"  painting  33" x 46"  2010

"Zurich"  work on paper  12" x 16"  2010

"Be Lost In Me"  painting  50" x 66"  2009

Mark Thompson is a British born artist who has an intense fascination with wintry landscapes. The kind of environment he depicts is one that compels most people to retreat indoors. Some people must brave the elements out of necessity. But others, like the artist I imagine, are compelled to immerse themselves in it by choice. Such people do so, in part, precisely because others do not. They relish the isolation, the profound and invigorating lonesomeness that suffuses such an experience. There is an intensity of awareness being out in harsh elements. One can feel exquisitely alive in conditions that are not conducive to survival. One is confronted directly with the exigencies of life, the need for shelter, for warmth. Mr Thompson's works are not meant to record particular moments but rather sum up the memories of numerous occasions. His expressionistic rendering of atmosphere and snow create a sharp contrast to his careful architectural rendering serving to point out the difference between man's needs and the whims of environment. They remind me of some of the late winter scenes by Maurice Vlaminck, but he has pursued the subject matter more thoroughly, more relentlessly, developing a style in the very vernacular of winter.
There is lots more to see at his website: www.markthompson-artist.com
I came across his work at the affordable art fair in Seattle last weekend, where his work was represented by www.ggibsongallery.com

Jonas Pettersson

title unknown

"Myren"

"Towards a clearing", Painting, Watercolor, 2012, 45 x 32 cm

"Cracking void", Painting, Mixed media, 2012, 20 x 20 cm

"Frozen", Painting, Mixed media, 2012, 66 x 50 cm

Jonas Pettersson is an artist in Sweden who definitely loves his media. Most of the time that's watercolor, and he's not afraid to go completely abstract, just exploring all the weird things that watercolor can do. He get's some pretty beautiful effects. When all that experimentation and love of the medium is put in service of some simple representation he manages to capture a sense of space and atmosphere with what looks like breathtaking effortlessness. It's rather Zen. Now and then he'll throw in some other materials, just to see what happens. He has some fun with cracking effects, as in the last two images. But his experimentation is not afraid to wander pretty far afield, even using bacterial growth to create patterns on paper. You can see a few pieces here:
www.artdoxa.com/jonaspettersson
There's more to look at on his gallery's website but no information (titles, media or size) is given:
www.skissa.se/galleriet/jonas-pettersson

Charles Ritchie

"Self-Portrait with Night XI"  watercolor, graphite and conté crayon on Fabriano paper  5.5" x 12"  2011-2012

"Snow in Two Panels"  watercolor, graphite and conté crayon on Fabriano paper  4" x 12"  208-2011

"Composition with Summer Foliage"  watercolor and graphite on Fabriano paper  3 1/8" x 3 3/4"

"Three Windows"  watercolor, graphite, conté crayon, and white ink on Fabriano paper  6 7 /8 x 8 3/8"  2010-2011

"Kitchen Windows with Reflections"  watercolor and graphite on Fabriano paper  4" x 6"  2011

Charles Ritchie's work was included in the latest issue of New American Paintings (#100 covering the Southeast U.S.) and it immediately caught my eye. I'm always drawn to night time imagery; the atmosphere of it, the way details recede into shadow and the darkness joins large areas into obscure patterns. But I also loved the way he plays with reflected images. The night he observes is often seen through a pane of glass, superimposing multiple views, further obscuring the subject matter, adding to the mystery. Then finally I noticed the technique. And especially the scale. Now I do love large paintings. Scale is incredibly important, and the impact of a particular piece can be tremendously more effective on a monumental scale. Alternately, what might have been a nice modest painting can seem a bloated and over indulgent. But small has its own strengths and charms and pitfalls. Small is intimate. A crowd can gather about a huge painting in a gallery and feel as if they are sharing in the experience. But very small pieces insist on individual interaction. Only one at a time please. You must make a very personal connection to the work. These quiet meditative images are perfectly suited for this kind of interaction. And I can well imagine that the soft, loving, labor intensive technique would well reward the smallest investment of attention. You can see much more work on the artist's website: www.charlesritchie.com

Oswald Cromheecke

From "Minah" 2011

From "Minah" 2011

From "Minah" 2011

From "Minah" 2011

From "Family Chronicles" 2010

From "Family Chronicles" 2010

Oswald Cromheecke is a Belgian artist working with graphic novel formats and animation. Both capture a very dark world view where the fantasy appeal of horror genres blends disturbingly with the all too real horrors of war, violence and despair. The work is spare, simple, and haunting in it's ability to accumulate in your minds eye and linger there. Like an unwelcome guest who has some valuable lessons to share with you, if you can just get past his rather appalling appearance, and never mind the dirt he tracked in or the sweet musty odor like something from an opened tomb. But seriously. The work has an immediate and visceral appeal. Much of it is cryptic in intent, making it all the more compelling. The books are self-published through blurb.com where you can leaf through virtual previews. The animations can be watched or linked to from his blog, oswaldcromheecke.blogspot.com. You can also view his work on Flickr.

(I highly recommend his most recent animation, "Antarctica", a simple bleak homage to Scott's doomed south pole expedition, music courtesy of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' soundtrack to the movie The Proposition.)

Lee White

Midnight ride

Arctic Fox

 

Lurking

They Came By Air

untitled figure study

Lee White is primarily an illustrator of children's books. We could only wish for the children that more picture books displayed his level of artistry (I readily acknowledge that there are a lot of absolutely astounding artists working in this field, but as a father and an artist I can confidently claim that they do not make up the majority of published material). He does his own work as well, as you can see from some of the examples above. No artist worthy of the name can do otherwise and stay sane. But his style and interests lend themselves wonderfully to his chosen profession. What I find most appealing is his ability to evoke quite particular moods through light and atmosphere with a deft gestural style and careful color choices. It brings a very real kind of life to his often poignant fantasies. You can see much more on his website, www.leewhiteillustration.com and on his blog.

Erik Sandgren

Erik Sandgren teaches in Washington state and his work primarily concerns the the land, the sea and the people of the Pacific Northwest (although not exclusively). His father was a professor of painting and his life has been filled from an early age with a vast array of influences. Although he cites none of these my own poorly educated eye sees traces of Winslow Homer filtered through the likes of Charles Burchfield and Marsden Hartley. His pieces are as much about the ephemeral personal experience as they are about the place to which that experience is tied. He works both Plein Air and in the studio capturing fleeting moments of light and atmosphere in the first case and then filtering the moment through the lens of memory and meaning in the second.
The titles, sizes and media of his work are unlisted on his website (www.eriksandgren.com) which also shows only a small portion of his output. More work can be seen at karinclarkegallery.com