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.

Helen Verhoeven

Helen Verhoeven employs a loose expressionistic style to evoke a highly charged psychological world. The events in her work are not always clear but there is a sense of tension, or disconnection, a brooding question mark hangs over the participants as if they might be unaware of their own or each other's motivation, or even actions. With her two large "Event" projects from 2008 she created large almost mural sized paintings of large ceremonial social gatherings. She then created a whole series of separate paintings that were details of the the original. Or the other way around. But the effect is one of minute scrutiny into an opaque and incomprehensible social event. Even her painting style contributes to the sense of unease, suggesting that crowds and cultural and social behaviors consist of unknowable or perhaps primitive individual motivations and are therefor, ultimately, even disturbingly, abstract.
There is plenty of wonderful work to look through on her website that shows an ongoing and fascinating transformation of style and intent over time.  www.helenverhoeven.com












"Event Two", acrylic on canvas, 208.5 x 418 cm (82” x 164.5" inches), 2008

"Event One", acrylic on canvas, 198 x 404 cm (78” x 159" inches), 2008

Out of these large scenes she recreated many details as their own paintings....

"Event One" detail 4 (room with portrait)  oil on canvas, 183 x 152.5 cm (72” x 60" inches), 2008


And here's one of the paintings in the above painting done as it's own painting. I really enjoy the multi-layered reality of all this.

"Event One – Detail 6 (Portrait with Sons)"  oil on canvas, 183 x 122 cm (72” x 48" inches), 2008

Here's some context to give you an idea of scale.

And here's a couple more pieces from other series....

 "Half After - 3"  oil on canvas, 150 x 200 cm (59 x 78.7 inches) 2009

"Don't Do Me Any Favors" oil on canvas, 106.7 x 147.3 cm (42" x 58" inches), 2007


I'd like to credit booooooom.com with first bringing her work to my attention.

Caitlin Karolczak

Caitlin Karolczak is a fairly young artist (born in 1984) from Minnesota. In both her education (BA in art history and BFA in fine arts) and work (as part owner of a gallery that deals in historic material) she has combined a love of art history with her own personal imagery. That imagery is frequently an unsettling confrontation with the human form. Technically her work ranges from exquisite realism to abstract expressionism sometimes combining very different approaches within the same painting. One might expect this approach to lead to inconsistency and directionless but somehow everything she does hangs together in a unified vision tempered with real artistic talent. Here's someone to keep an eye on in the years to come.
You can see more work on bluecanvas.com or at her website:  studiosilenti.com

The new blogger editor gives me the option of posting images a little larger so I'll give it a try.
This first image has a strong evocation of the incredible Odilon Redon.

"The Red Veil"  oil / encaustic on panel  2009

"Insolently Shrieking, or the End of the Day"  oil on canvas  48" x 60"

"Open window"  oil on panel  11.5" x 13"

"repose"  oil on canvas  60" x 60"

"Girl"

Michael Brophy

Michael Brophy is a regionalist who captures and catalogs the experience of the pacific northwest, and in so doing captures what it means to know where you live. Unfortunately, his work really doesn't translate all that well to digital. His work can only be seen on two gallery websites where the images are fairly small. Also it seems that the paintings that sold are no longer posted and as one can imagine those are often (although not always) the strongest pieces. Oh well. The size is the most frustrating thing. The paintings are often huge. Not always. He works small too, but it's his large monumental works that have the biggest impact. The funny part of it is that it's hard to say why their impact is so profound. Technically they're good but there are many artists whose skill with a brush is more deft or refined. In some measure it's the very simplicity of his imagery and technique that are the heart of his work. There are plenty of artists who approach similar subject matter but Mr. Brophy's work is always immediately recognizable as his own and no one else's.
These really, really need to be seen in real life. If you happen to be in the Portland, Oregon area, you can see some of his current work at the Lauro Russo Gallery through the month of September. He also shows work in Seattle at G. Gibson Gallery.

"Jetty"  66" x 78"  oil on canvas  2010

"Sound"  54" x 66"  oil on canvas  2010

 Here are two of his smaller paintings. The fact that you can barely see the difference between the paintings above and these below is profoundly depressing to me. I like them both but the differences in scale are enormous.

"Sage"  15" x 17"  oil on canvas  2009

"Lightning"  15" x17"  2009

And here's a much older piece that lives in the Tacoma Art Museum that I have always loved. It's much more closely tied to an older romantic tradition than his newer more minimal work, but it's all equally steeped in the raw vitality of direct experience processed in the studio.

"January" oil on canvas  78" x 95 1/2"  1997