Showing posts with label plants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plants. Show all posts
Friday, April 11, 2014
Flora and Skulls
Emily Nolan is a painter from Toronto, ON. "Biology and the inner workings of living bodies fascinate Emily Nolan and provide recurring themes in her work. Juxtaposing elements of decaying human life with organic flora and fauna filled with vibrancy, colour, and potential, Emily delves into the cycle of life from birth to death, deterioration to regeneration. Her epoxy-coated images offer luscious, candy-coated memento mori that draw from both traditional and contemporary culture." I'm always drawn to artwork that blends nature and anatomy. Emily's work has vibrant flora that follows the shape of the skull. I'm sure these are something you'd have to see in person to fully enjoy the depth of colors.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Deer Skulls
Local Richmond, VA artist, Bizhan Khodabandeh, created this dear skull image. It is a pen and ink illustration that was digitally colored. If you live in Virginia, you are probably familiar with the symbolism of the cardinals and dogwood. I love how these elements are incorporated into the deer skull, along with details commonly found on our forest floors. I love the seamless blend of life and death...the cycle of our world. Visit his website, Mended Arrow, to see more of and purchase Bizhan's artwork.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Dia de la Abby: #69 Skull of Seasons
I've been playing with this idea for years...to make a painting that showed one object split into 4 and affected by the seasons.
I choose one of my favorite place in Richmond, Maymont, as inspiration for showing the seasons. They have a koi pond and beautiful foliage, so it was an easy choice with lots of possibilities. The aging of the skull was inspired by old relic skulls found in oceans. Granted that skulls don't float, but depicting it this way made it easier to split it into four parts. The seasons from the top left clockwise, are Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Fall has colorful falling leaves and acorns (in the nose), which are common here (and other places) during the fall. Winter has snow, but we tend to have odd winters. Rain and ice would have been more accurate, but harder to paint. Spring has baby koi and shorter water plants. Summer has an adult koi and taller water plants. The water plants are grass like at Maymont. Every year (probably every few months) workers have to pull large amounts of it out of the pond, because it grows too thickly and hinders the Koi from swimming.
This painting took 3 days to complete. I enjoyed experimenting with painting techniques and taking my time. Painting like this is still fairly new to me, but it's very rewarding to see the finished products.
I choose one of my favorite place in Richmond, Maymont, as inspiration for showing the seasons. They have a koi pond and beautiful foliage, so it was an easy choice with lots of possibilities. The aging of the skull was inspired by old relic skulls found in oceans. Granted that skulls don't float, but depicting it this way made it easier to split it into four parts. The seasons from the top left clockwise, are Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Fall has colorful falling leaves and acorns (in the nose), which are common here (and other places) during the fall. Winter has snow, but we tend to have odd winters. Rain and ice would have been more accurate, but harder to paint. Spring has baby koi and shorter water plants. Summer has an adult koi and taller water plants. The water plants are grass like at Maymont. Every year (probably every few months) workers have to pull large amounts of it out of the pond, because it grows too thickly and hinders the Koi from swimming.
This painting took 3 days to complete. I enjoyed experimenting with painting techniques and taking my time. Painting like this is still fairly new to me, but it's very rewarding to see the finished products.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)