Steven Tabbutt

The Grey Rabbit

The Gift - panel 2

Tourist

Incident

Mono Myth

Steven Tabbutt is an illustrator and an artist who has been gathering up a busload of awards and accolades for his evocative work. His style encompasses a range of approaches from the fairly traditional to a highly stylized use of intricate line work. All of it shares the same sense of visual playfulness, in a decidedly dark and minor key, that makes for some compelling and intriguingly cryptic visual narratives. You can see more of his work on his website: steventabbutt.com

Lee White

Midnight ride

Arctic Fox

 

Lurking

They Came By Air

untitled figure study

Lee White is primarily an illustrator of children's books. We could only wish for the children that more picture books displayed his level of artistry (I readily acknowledge that there are a lot of absolutely astounding artists working in this field, but as a father and an artist I can confidently claim that they do not make up the majority of published material). He does his own work as well, as you can see from some of the examples above. No artist worthy of the name can do otherwise and stay sane. But his style and interests lend themselves wonderfully to his chosen profession. What I find most appealing is his ability to evoke quite particular moods through light and atmosphere with a deft gestural style and careful color choices. It brings a very real kind of life to his often poignant fantasies. You can see much more on his website, www.leewhiteillustration.com and on his blog.

Jeremy Hush

"Droning Glow" 2011

"Nettled" 2011

"The sigh" 2011

"Vexed" 2011

"Wisdom and Faulty Design" 2010

Jeremy Hush is a fairly young artist with one of those names so apropos that we can only hope it's real. He creates small exquisite illustrations in ball point pen and watercolor. I know of only one other artist using ball point pen (Caitlin Hackett whose work is not completely dissimilar). It's an unlikely medium that I myself prefer for sketching. Anyway, his delicate images capture a certain mood, a sort of wounded fantasy world in which life itself seems to be unraveling and unwinding, bound to cease it's awkward motions at any moment. It has more than a hint of the Goth aesthetic, but in it's more subtle and nuanced forms, harking back to the detailed and sometimes dark children's illustrators of the 19th century illustration. The delicacy and sensitivity of the work makes an interesting and ironic contrast to the personal snapshots on his flickr page where we can witness the artist's love for heavy metal music, automatic weapons and trespassing (In addition to the art of course). Keep keepin' it real Mr. Hush. And keep busy. I'll look forward to see what happens the next time your adventuring takes you inside.

You can also follow his progress on his blog: hushillustration.blogspot.com

Theo Ellsworth

First Contact

Monster the Musical

Sea Monsters Love Boats

Fast Asleep on the Fish's Back

A Quiet Monster

I've been paying too much attention to painterly painter types lately so it's time to mix it up a little. Theo Ellsworth's work is grounded in the comics aesthetic. In fact he does comics, in addition to stand alone framed art pieces. He's probably better known for the comics work anyway, having a 15 page story selected by Neil Gaiman for the 2010 issue of Best American Comics. But hey, it's all art. What makes his work stand out is a little difficult to pin down. His drawing style seems to draw from a grab bag of traditional historic sources in addition to the more obvious modern ones. To my eye there are suggestions of Mayan, Aztec, Celtic and Old Norse imagery. All of this comes about intuitively of course and is not being overtly referenced. But it all comes together through Mr. Ellsworth's unique and humorous surrealism, replete with spacemen, monsters and other curious creations.
Check out his website: thoughtcloudfactory.com
Follow his blog: theoellsworth.blogspot.com
or browse through his Flickr page.

Kelly Louise Judd

"Forest Sleep" Oil on panel  16" x 20"

"Lead Us, Lantern" 18" x 24" Oil on panel  2010

"Out Comes The Night"  12" x 24"  Oil on Panel

"Perched" Oil on panel  16" x 20"

"Weeping Woods" Ink and watercolor on paper  2010

Kelly Lousie Judd's work is part of a larger scene in the art/illustration world, that I do not yet know a name for. It exists alongside the pop-surrealist movement. But it is not pop. It parallels steam-punk's interest in 19th century aesthetics but without the industrial focus. It has it's roots in the work of the late Edward Gorey and culls it's influences from the like of Arthur Rackham and Kay Nielsen. Ms. Judd's work stands out for it's haunting moods and arresting visual concepts. She describes a world of ghosts and spirits, of dreams and tragedy and transformation. You can see more of her work at her website (www.swanbones.com) and on Flickr, or follow her blog.

Vladimir Stankovic Rus

"The Forbidden Dance"
colored pencils, markers and watercolors on paper  25 x 18 cm

"There You Shall Find All That You Could Desire!"
watercolors, colored pencils, color markers on paper  12.5 x 17.5 cm

"Secret Gathering"
Mixed technique on paper  25 x 18 cm




































"The Spell Has Been Broken"
colored pencils, color markers and tempera on paper  25 x 18 cm

 "I Overheard a Secret"  Mixed technique on paper

Vladimir Stankovic Rus is a young graphic designer and illustrator from Serbia (currently residing in Finland and, I think, enrolled in a Masters program. His interest in and pursuit of commercial work however has not hindered his unbridled creative vision. Applying colored pencils, watercolor, color markers, tempera and probably anything else handy to paper, he creates an arresting allegorical vision. There's a strong hint of Gustav Klimt in the way he builds shapes, not with modeled coloring effects, but with rich patterns that give the work an unexpected depth. The shapes butt up against one another and overlap in surprising ways that spell out a puzzle-like narrative of human, semi-human, and monstrous relationships. The menagerie of stylized mythical creatures that seem to lurk throughout much of his work also evoke hints of Heironymous Bosch. These works are small and dense, and worth a good deal more than a glance. Take your time with them.
There's a lot of art to look through, plus some fine graphic design work on his Flickr page.

John Kenn

Okay, so these are not pretending to be high art. The artist actually writes and produces children's television shows in Denmark, and confesses that these are merely doodles done on office supplies during brief moments of respite on busy days. So you'll never see these on a gallery wall, or be able to buy a limited edition print. At least I don't think so. Although I do think they are easily worthy of both. They breathe with some of the same dark humorous life that inhabits the work of Edward Gorey. Perhaps the power of the internet and sudden worldwide acclaim for an exceptional doodler will convince him to find something slightly more archival to scribble on in the future.
All pieces are pen on post-it notes and untitled. You can see many more on his blog: johnkenn.blogspot.com
The blog header says Don Kenn so It's impossible to be entirely sure which is correct.

Erik Berndt

Erik Berndt draws and dreams just like many of us once did as children, with only pencil and paper and a sense of limitless possibility. He creates whole worlds that can pull you in to the wanderings of his imagination. His work often oscillates from the frenetic extremes of urbanization to chaotic botanical exuberance, occasionally the latter slowly overtaking the former. But these are not statements per se about contemporary society or post-industrialization. They seem to be mere excuses for his exploration of complexity and pattern, vehicles for him to create Escher-like visions of an alternate world reflective of our own but a good deal more entertaining and spirited.
He has a phenomenal number of these richly detailed visions on his Flickr page and, as far as I can tell, nowhere else.
















"The Plumbers at Work" 20x30cm 2010
















"The Forgotten Brewery" 20x30cm 2009
















"The Railway Station" 20x30cm 2009
















"Remote Relay Station" 20x30cm 2009

















"The Ferry" 20x30cm 2009
















"The Open Heart of the City" 20x30cm 2009

Travis Louie - 2

Travis Louie just posted a few new pieces on his Flickr page and that to me is as good a reason as any to post an update on this unique artist. I first posted some of his work in June, 2009. Each of his exquisitely drawn portraits comes with a short narrative written by the artist. The general idea is that these are actually photographs of odd characters from a century or more ago and the narratives are brief bios of their peculiar lives. It is an easy thing to let an hour or more slip by looking through these extraordinary portraits and their accompanying stories.
His website (www.travislouie.com) is as good a place to start as any but for the most complete and up to date collection look through the aforementioned Flickr page. You can also keep track of all things Louie on his blog www.travislouie.blogspot.com.
I'm including a couple of the narratives below to whet your appetite for more.






















"The Myth of Floaters"
"The best stories about this myth come from North Dakota, where the hairiest floaters reside. In those stories the floaters are said to hover over people’s heads and sprinkle seeds which germinate and sprout herbs and foliage. One man claimed to have grown a full head of ferns atop his mostly bald head."






















"The Toad Prince"
"After years of approaching young women with the promise that a kiss would turn him into a prince, he finally convinced a young lady with strange hair to kiss him on his moist lips. Unfortunately, she was afflicted with the “bad hair” and the toad merely turned into a larger human-size toad. He became much smellier and developed a taste for single malt scotch and sausages. His dreams to be a prince dashed, he became a criminal lawyer, croaking his way through court room trials for the next 40 years."























"Monster Man"






















"Pals"


And here is an unusual look at an unfinished piece, a prequel of sorts to the piece directly above.






















"Pals before the bet"

Sarina Brewer

Sarina Brewer is an artist turned taxidermist who hates to see anything go to waste. In some strange way, she treasures all the lost and lonely body parts of her four-legged and feathered friends. So she finds ways to give them new life and new meaning. While it may border on simple side show freakdom (and I don't suppose she would reject the appeal of that entirely) it goes beyond that as well. I'll point out right here that no animal is killed for the purpose of her art. They come from salvaged roadkill, discarded livestock, destroyed nuisance animals, and victims of an often cruel pet trade. She saves everything that she can and transforms it all into these fascinating totems to biological mystery.
And I'd just like to quote her here: "I call it art. You can call it whatever you want."
See more at www.customcreaturetaxidermy.com















"Ebony Griffin"


















"North Woods Chimera"













"Feejee Mermaid"


















"Jersey Devil Remains Display"

















"Heart Fetish"

Thanks to accidental mysteries for first bringing her work to my attention