Archive for the ‘art’ Category
Building cityscapes out of pen, ink and watercolors, Gabriel Campanario can be seen throughout the streets of Seattle capturing the city’s subtle nuances and familiar landmarks both in the pages of his sketchbooks and in his Seattle Sketcher column for the Seattle Times. Even more inspirational is Gabriel’s dedication to the art of sketching. Seeking artistic community and a place to share and celebrate ideas, he spearheaded the Urban Sketchers movement, created to connect artists the world over through the art of sketching. With a network of sketch groups in over 30 countries around the globe, urban sketchers draw on location, immortalizing their cities through lines and colors, and visually sharing their adventures with each other and the world online.
Sketch by sketch, Urban Sketchers has grown and gained momentum, with the latest project resulting in a book filled with over 500 illustrations by artists of all backgrounds. The book not only showcases artists’ sketchbooks, but also discusses each artist’s inspirations, drawing process, and techniques. Inspired to grab her pen and watercolors and start sketching on the spot, Culture Vixen’s Gayle Wheatley caught up with Gabriel to find out more about his illustrated life.
There’s something conspiratorially intimate about looking through an artist’s sketchbook. Filled with raw ideas that encompass both beginnings of larger projects and one-shot passing ideas, flipping through someone’s sketchbook is akin to peeking into someone else’s mind.
With Julia Rothman’s latest book “Drawn In” (Quarry Books) you get to gaze into 44 sketchbooks belonging to fine artists, illustrators, graphic designers and cartoonists around the world.
All across Los Angeles, street artist Paige Smith is making the city sparkle. With faux paper geodes that is. And lots of unexpected shapes that represent crystals, quartz, and other mineral formations normally found in nature.
Stella Im Hultberg* is a talented painter living and working in Brooklyn whose work is wonderfully ethereal. She was born in South Korea and raised in Seoul, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and later California. Her work has an enchanting quality to it, and her sketchbooks are especially fun. You can even browse though entire sketchbook collections on her website.
I’ve been following the work of Tim Biskup for some time now. Born and raised in Southern California, his work is colorful and abundant. I was especially impressed with his 100 Paintings book, filled with “his bizarre world of oozing monsters, delicate birds and abstract flourishes”.*
In the Hôtel Au Vieux Panier in Marseille, France, there’s half a room that is tagged like crazy with all colors of the rainbow. The other half? Stark, zen-like, and white. Imagine the view from the bed: look right, modern and contemplative. Look left, riotous expression. The artist? Tilt.
Activists from Anima Naturalis staged this street scene in Barcelona to raise awareness about animal cruelty.
I’m completely awestruck by New York sculptress Tara Donovan’s beautiful works of art. Looking at her organic sculptural forms, you can see why she was recently selected for the prestigious MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ grant. Tara is known for creating unique forms out of ordinary objects like tape, paper plates, pencils, Styrofoam cups and much more. The mundane nature of her materials completely vanish into her otherworldly sculptures revealing instead curious shapes and fascinating textures.
These magical photos of jellyfish were snapped by Russian biologist and sea life photographer Alexander Semenov. Having studied Zoology (with an emphasis on squid brains!), not only are his jellyfish photos phenomenal, but his photography conjures up all kinds of dreams of the sea.
Liam Brazier is a freelance illustrator with an impressive roster of clients (think Samsung, the Museum of London, Virgin TV). Love his geometrical digital renderings of comic heroes and sci-fi legends.
