Kill Pixie

I couldn't find a title for this but check out the work of Kill Pixie, an Australian graffiti artist. Unless you've been living under a rock you would be well aware of this guy's star status. I'm drawn to the originality of his vision, the obsessions to detail, patterns and those lurid colours.

Jamie Shelman

"Untitled", acrylic on paper, 38x 50 in. 2006

Ok. I hang my head in shame. The frequency of my posts are just lame. I know. I'm inspired every day with what I see around this online universe and I really have been very selfish by not sharing. I'm just going to post whatever takes my fancy. Jamie Shelman is a painter and an illustrator. I think the freshness of her painted surfaces are quite stunning and beautifully resolved.

Minnie Pwerle

Minnie Pwerle

Awelye

2005

Synthetic polymer on Belgian linen

Minnie Pwerle

Awelye Athwengerrp

2005

acrylic on linen

56 x 56 cm

Please enjoy these stunning paintings by the late Minnie Pwerle, an Australian Indigenous painter. I have a yellowing and tattered magazine image of one of her paintings on my studio wall and it inspires me every day. From a formalist point of view, Pwerle's treatment of surface is entirely contemporary; layers of pigment suggest the rippling effects of wind on sand or tidal waters through kelp.

Her distinctive style used linear brush-work based on the body painting used for important women's ceremonies in her native country of Atnwengerrp. She painted with a rich array of colours and her work contained a compelling visual and spiritual power.

All the stories she painted conveyed her deep connection with the land, and knowledge of the foods that it provides. (quoted from Wikipedea)

Jason Rosenberg

Painting meets collage with Jason Rosenberg. Enjoy!

Paul Corvers

120 x 100cm

oil on linen
Image: courtesy of the artist

I found this painter over at dripbook. Also, check out his website for more accurate images as this one doesn't seem to want to post properly. I love the simplicity of his work.

Ken Weathersby

163 (d & g)
2009
Acrylic & Graphite on Canvas over Panel, with Removed and Reversed Areas
32" x 41"

Two sided painting.

I am a hedonist when it comes to painting. You can probably tell by now that I love the meatiness of paint, the way it looks and reacts. Which is why I was surprised by my attraction to the seemingly 'paintless' works of Ken Weathersby. Go look. This guy pays serious respect to the history of painting. (Where a dialogue takes place in which we consider that painting has made a break from it's function as an illusion of reality to being a function in and of itself - that of being a set of forms on a flat surface with four sides; dare I say, an object, conceptual or otherwise, to hang on a wall.)

A while ago I made reference to the fantasy of getting in and behind brushwork -to wonder how the artist has technically made a painting. Is the average punter likely to do that with painting today? Certainly, whilst once offering technically proficient representations of other worlds to marvel at, I wonder if painting today gives us a lot to think about and look at - but rarely a surface in which we're meant to get beyond. With Ken Weathersby's paintings we can do all this and more. Literally his figure (the viewer?) is diving into the painting, giving new meaning to the figure/ground relationship.

In this work (and others on his website) one can enjoy the reversed side. I wonder. Is this a double wink aimed at consumerist sensibilities where surface image is supreme, and painting itself. A two for the price of one deal. The banality of plaid sits neatly against meticulously worked wood panels; as if the two could represent something from a family man's workshop in the 1950s. Homely, bland, safe - a message to consumer (surface) culture; perhaps a salve for art onlookers, weary of abstraction and it's many confusing conundrums. But have a little read of his blog. There's a lot going on in his head which I make no claims to understand. What I know is that I like Ken's questioning and his attempts to offer answers to the beautiful puzzle that is painting.

Ken's work reminds me of this artist, Steven Harvey who, also preoccupied with questions of how to push painting to another level, has produced some really interesting pieces.

Raquel Mazzina

"Blue Stroll" 50.5 x 61 cm - oil on canvas

Here's a painter who I came across just recently and wanted to devote a quick post too. These are really powerful and very beautiful. Slabs of paint seem to be literally driven across the canvas; no dainty dabs here. While layers of colour suggest the geomorphic structure of land there is an emotional quotient embedded in each buttery stroke of the the brush/palette knife. These paintings fairly heave and shimmer despite the thickness of paint. You can find more of Raquel Mazzina's work here.

"Chevron" 122 x 92 cm - oil on canvas