Here's another artist who falls more or less into a category I've come to know as Pop surrealism. It's a world that falls somewhere in a kind of no man's land between fantasy illustration and fine art. Personally I love it. And there are some really fine galleries popping up in major art markets dedicated to it. Allison Sommers mines a vein of very dark, sometimes grotesque humor in this field. She has a cast of recurring characters including the greenish long-necked guys in the first two pieces here. This sense of an ongoing mythos or milieu is an important aspect of her work. The world itself, is often filled with viscera and polyps. She paints very small, with intense detail, often using a magnifying glass in the process. The result is that one feels as if one is peering into a miniature world of microbes transformed into some dark Dr. Seussian nightmare. Fun stuff!
Check out her web page (
www.allisonsommers.com) and/or her
Flickr page for more.
"The Sudden Picnic in the Succulent Grove" 8.5" x 7.5" gouache on illustration board 2009
"H & G in the Garden" 11" x 14" gouache on illustration board 2009
"Afterbirth" 12" x 12" gouache on illustration board 2010
"Treehouse 7.5'' x 9.5" gouache on illustration board 2008
"The Alchemist & His Son" 3.5" x 5.5" gouache on illustration board 2008
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