Everyone Loves A Cowboy

Images conjuring up the hot, dusty plains. Smell of horse and sweat. These images are an integral part of our national heritage, marking the drive west, for better or for worse.

The Cowboy Artists of America organization is dedicated to preserving, maintaining, and fostering an interest in this form of visual representation. Their website is full of good information for the collector and enthusiast. The thought of traveling to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to catch the upcoming CAA art auction makes my heart gallop!

Hat tip to and image taken from Lines and Colors blog. Original paintings by John Moyers, Fred Fellows, Bill Owen, R.S. Riddick, Martin Grelle.

Back To The Future

I am such a sucker for vintage posters – I love the color and illustration style. And I am a geek at heart, so meshing that vintage style with space-age themes is a natural. Color + Design Blog has some beautiful examples of “retro-future” illustrations. The entry directs you to other sites for additional work and information. Check out Retro-futurismus and Steve Thomas art for more great images and color schemes.

Drawing On Modernism

Extraordinary in its breadth, if not depth, MoMA is currently showing selections from the largest gift of drawings ever received, 2,500 drawings by 650 artists from The Judith Rothschild Foundation. The exhibition, “Compass In Hand”, includes  354 works by 177 artists of those artists, the largest show of drawings MoMA has ever stood. You can read the NYT review here and, while it is not altogether favorable, I myself loved the slides. Never mind the NYT – here’s hoping I can get to the City before the show ends on July 27, 2009.

A Crazy-Quilt of Color

Instead of a brush, Israeli painter Leonid Afremov uses a palette knife and a full palette to create eye-popping landscapes. From the site:

I tried different techniques during my career, but I especially fell in love with painting with oil and pallette-knife. Every artwork is the result of long painting process; every canvas is born during the creative search; every painting is full of my inner world. Each of my paintings brings different mood, colors and emotions. I love to express the beauty, harmony and spirit of this world in my paintings. My heart is completely open to art. Thus, I enjoy creating inspired and beautiful paintings from the bottom of my soul. Each of my artworks reflects my feelings, sensitivity, passion, and the music from my soul. True art is alive and inspired by humanity. I believe that art helps us to be free from aggression and depression.

Mutilated Vestiges of a Mis-Spent Youth

Did you play with action figures as a child? I did. And, after my brothers were through with them, they looked much like the losing side of an epic battle with the legion of super-villains.
Malaysian artist Olan Ventura has represented such artifacts by transforming them into oil paintings. His work is on display at the Taksu Gallery in Kuala Lampur. Called “Toy Box”, it is a study in how humans use superheros. Unlike the pristine examples found in enthusiast’s collections, these represent what one might think real super heros might look like, complete with battle scars and wounds.

Hat tip to io9.

Art With An Urban Asthetic

I stumbled across Jason Thielke‘s art this morning on Friendfeed. I love his unique, graphic style. His statement, taken from his own site:

Jason Thielke’s art focuses on urban landscapes and their inhabitants. A strong emotional connection to the built environment and its inevitable rise and fall provide the foundation for his work. Thielke’s aesthetic encompasses both contemporary and traditional techniques much like modern architecture; his process of drawing, composing, and transferring images mirrors the planning, deconstruction and reconstruction phases of urban gentrification. The architectural style in his work is applied to his interpretation of the human form, which comfortably contrasts hard lines with soft features and mixed emotions. Thielke often parallels this theme with the resurgence of American figurative painting. Thielke earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Northern Illinois University School of Art and has held solo exhibitions in Denver, Portland and Seattle.