Artists

Hyper-realism of Marcello Barenghi

Artists

It’s hard for me not to get carried away with superlatives when discussing Marcello Barenghi’s hyper-realistic art — images of soda bottles or candy packages that you’d swear you could pick up, bees ready to fly off the canvas or snakes ready to strike.  While you can see the images at his web site at http://www.marcellobarenghi.com, watching the time-lapse videos of him creating these amazing works on YouTube is the really special treat.  Highly recommended that you check it out!

Where’s He Going With This?

Artists, Blog

I’m a member of the Franklin Art Association and every month a guest artist does a demonstration at the group meeting.  Not being a painter and thus knowing little more than there is a brush and paint involved (and canvas?) many of the demos go over my head.  Tonight’s session was different, featuring the lively, vibrant work of Adam O’Day.

He did not start with a blank canvas, but instead with a rich orange underpainting.  Wait, I thought this was supposed to be a Boston night scene!  What’s this splash of color doing?

Sit back and watch, Dale.

But it got brighter, with broad strokes of yellow green and salmon blocking out smaller sections of the canvas on top of that already colorful initial glow of paint. How is this going to turn into a night scene?

Finally out came the blacks.  Ah, now it is coming together: a variety of narrow sponges and scrapers blocked in darker Hancock and other landmark buildings, gridding in windows that were lit from within/beneath from that preparatory color base. Angled darker, but far from dark, lines and brush swoops caused the road to appear and lead into that simple but complex background of buildings.

Those initial random-seeming paint swaths were far from random, instead each purposefully placed without being formulaic and in an hour and a half a delightful piece came together, something that will draw your eye in repeatedly, seeing something new in it each time.  Any work on our walls needs to be worth more than an occasional glance but instead deeper study and appreciation, and Adam’s result certainly qualified.

Thank you, Adam, for a delightful lesson!

Wonderful Inlay Art of Matti Laaninen

Artists

At the recent Paradise City art show we encountered the inlay work of Matti Laaninen, doing business as Hudson River Inlay (http:/www.hudsonriverinlay.com/). To call his work wonderful is too cliched and insufficient to describe not just the precise craftsmanship but the artistry of his designs.  Some of my images can take 25 to 30 hours or more to edit — a tiny sliver of the weeks.it must take him for some of his larger pieces.. The figured maple glows in the light, simulating water ripples in some of his works, and coupled with numerous other woods (more than 30 varieties in some pieces!) he has a color palette that he clearly is a master of using.

Truly an artist at the top of his game.

Amazing Numbers and Varieties

Artists

I frequent an artists’ community called WetCanvas, which, despite it’s name, has areas for not just for  painters but pastel artists, photographers and more.  In additional to loads of posts on tips and techniques you can ask questions about the business side of art.

But what most attracts me to the site is seeing such a wide variety of art and the talent that is out there.  Here’s an example I stumbled on recently by Keith Murray:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1399330

I’ve always been attracted to the realism school and this work certainly has that aspect pegged — remarkable highlights in the vase, textures in the fabric.

The local art association I’m a member of, the Franklin Art Association, has several painters with a similar style, and the semi-annual shows brings out their talent and that of many others. Just a small local art community but such a rich pool of talent.  Then multiply that across the state, the country, the globe — an amazingly rich pool of artists.

Take a peek in that pool at WetCanvas!