Caux Collective Introduces: Erik Olson
Some artists enjoy painting the things around them; the ordinary or the mundane, simply recording it how it appears. Others enjoy painting the surreal or things that may only have otherwise existed in dreams or foreign thoughts. Then there are those who ingeniously and beautifully merge the two, such as Canadian Fine Artist, Erik Olson. Throughout his project named ‘Architecture of the Face’ Olson’s work explores portraiture in an extraordinary fashion in which details and specific characteristics are often retained, whilst also experimenting with geometric irregularities and distortions, making for some very strange, almost disturbingly beautiful results.
If you would like to see more of Erik Olson’s artwork, including information regarding past and present exhibitions, as well as many other projects exploring the likes of space and foreign continents, head over to his website, as linked at the beginning of this post.
Pop Culture Portraits That Bleed Technicolor Soul
Art hounds and color aficionados have likely laid their eyes on at least one or more of Nicky Barkla’s explosive psychedelic odes to pop culture within the last several months, but even so, these inventive masterpieces are certainly worth another look if not for their stunning detail than certainly for the unconventional techniques used to create them.
Very little has been written about the twenty-something apart from the fact that she hails from the land down under and possesses simply extraordinary talent.
Her experimental and inspired use of unusual pigments and materials in her art works (white correction fluid and cosmetics included) generates a fiery undercurrent that seemingly animates her subjects, often in admittedly creepy ways.
Among Barkla’s favored art supply ‘must haves’, acrylic liquid matte paint rises to the top of the list as do encaustic art wax crayons heated directly on canvas with a hairdryer.
Once the wax begins liquefying, the artist continually adjusts the angle of her canvas in an effort to change the ‘flow pattern’, manipulating the color with an array of brushes and then adding masterful strokes with additional paints until her colorful cast of characters begin to manifest.
She even recycles Absolut Vodka bottles with singular artistic panache!
‘By the Scruff’ 10x10” acrylic on panel for the Prisma show ‘Animal in Me’ opening at Subtext next weekend in San Diego.
