Featured Artist: Denise Gallagher

We found Denise’s illustrations on the Brooklyn Art Project website. Denise obtained her BFA from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. As a lover of illustration and design, she became a graphic designer upon graduation.

Denise continued creating illustrations but did not have a style she could call her own. About seven years ago, Denise realized that although she was enjoying a creative career as a graphic designer, she had stopped doing anything simply for the joy of creating. When Denise was a child, she drew constantly. In college, she was never without her sketchbook. But as an adult graphic designer, she got to a point where she couldn’t remember the last time she had drawn for fun.

This was when Denise decided to start drawing again. She gave herself an assignment and a deadline each week. She had no client to please and no creative director to impress. Denise described how she regained her joy of creating artwork: Read More

Featured Artist: Sergey Nikolaev

Sergey Nikolaev is an artist and illustrator based in Moscow. As a young child, Sergey was an avid reader and found inspiration from the tales of adventures in his books. Gathering ideas from the stories, Sergey would draw pictures of pirates and Indians in the margins of his books. Recognizing his passion for art, Sergey’s mother enrolled him into art school to further cultivate his talents.

 

I was first drawn to Sergey’s work because of his interesting compositions and provocative subject matter. What looked like a simple, large drawing of a pair of glasses became almost abstract and three-dimensional when viewed up close. His multimedia collages seem to be screaming through the use of various typography, which become a competing series of patterns for someone like me, who doesn’t read the Cyrillic alphabet. According to Sergey, the use of these bits of type are a complex visual representation of noise in our modern culture.

 

What I also found unique was Sergey’s presentation. He finds drab but richly textured environments for his brightly-colored work. These almost monochromatic and desaturated backgrounds have the effect of making his collages and paintings look like they are jumping out of their surroundings.

 

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Drawings by Martina Visnjic

Martina Višnjić is a Croatian artist with a background in both textile and graphic design.  She works as a graphic designer and illustrator, citing  love, colors and fairy tales as her inspirations.

Martina had always used pencils for her drawings until she attempted the use of watercolor. Surprisingly, she fell in love with the quality of drawings and continued creating artwork with watercolors and ink on paper. To learn more about Martina, please click here.

Paintings by Sara Roizon

“River Dream – Sold” acrylic and mixed media on canvas 32″ x 48″

 

Sara Roizen is an artist and licensed creative arts therapist. She received a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Masters in Art Therapy from Pratt Institute. Read More

Featured Artist: Nelleke Verhoeff

Nelleke Verhoeff is an artist based in Rotterdam, Holland, who creates quirky and playful illustrations for her and her partner’s multidisciplinary creative company, yepr. Coming from a circus-inspired theater background where she came up with performance productions using handmade masks, Nelleke’s passion for all things theater is clearly apparent in her artwork.

About eight years ago, Nelleke discovered and fostered a passion in painting. With her growing interest in painting, she realized that she would have to choose between theater and painting. She chose painting, but her love of theater plays a huge role in her work. Her subjects are believable in their expressions and actions, and they strike a chord because they remind me of a person, a place, or an emotion. Nelleke writes that the rosy cheeks donned by her characters are visual representations of the feelings of enthusiasm, shyness and excitement; emotions she is very familiar with.

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Featured Artist: Maja Wronska

Maja Wrońska is an Poland-based architect in her fifth year at Warsaw University of Technology. She has taken on her mother’s trade of architecture and has been drawing buildings and castles since she was a little girl. Poland’s skill requirements for architectural school prompted Maja to attend drawing classes, which changed her attitude towards drawing and gave her inspiration as a developing artist.

I discovered Maja’s work through her site on Deviant Art and was first drawn to her work Girl With A Red Umbrella, particularly because of the detail in the building and its reflection on the street, combined with the skillful use of watercolor, and the concept of combining a structural concept with imaginative undertones. I first mistook the scattered white and red circles as raindrops, but during our interview Maja corrected me and said they were lampions as inspired by the lantern scene in the movie Tangled. Girl With A Red Umbrella is actually a depiction of Kupala Night in Poznań, Poland, a solstice celebration where thousands of lanterns float all over the city.


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Paintings by Melanee O’Hagan

April 25, 2012  |  drawing & painting, submission, visual art  |  4 Comments

"Carried Away"

 

When I look at Melanee’s work, I am immediately drawn to the energy and the movement in it. The bold brushstrokes of the background elicit the feeling that there is a wind stirring the leaves. The trees themselves are more elegant, with their curvy branches and the thoughtful textures which represent leaves. The colors make me wonder if the trees are on fire. All of these things serve to create an interesting contrast that leaves me feeling an intense passion emanating from the artwork.

"Treegamism"

Thanks, Melanee, and keep up the good work!

To get in touch with Melanee: melanee.ohagan at gmail dot com

“On A Foggy Day” By Kanako Shimura

March 27, 2012  |  drawing & painting, submission, visual art  |  1 Comment

“On a Foggy Day”

By Kanako Shimura

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A response to this Creative Exercise: For visual artists – use only one color of the chosen medium (i.e. black charcoal, green pencil, red acrylics, etc.) to make a drawing of the temperature change. For writers – incorporate 5 to 10 colors to describe your experience of weather change throughout the day.

“Impact” by Cherisse Garcia

March 26, 2012  |  drawing & painting, visual art  |  No Comments

Cherisse Garcia - Impact

Impact

Cherisse Garcia

Charcoal on Paper

“Empty Your Pockets” – a collaboration

Empty Your Pockets

“Empty Your Pockets”

Illustration by Kanako Shimura

Text by Shakira Sison

(a CreativationSpace collaboration)