Nancy Loughlin

Nancy Loughlin's paintings usually combine two elements. The first element is the space, the scene of the action if you will, and that space is almost always the home, represented either as an interior scene or as a graphic skeletal framework. She then populates this ultimate symbol of domesticity with a menagerie of wildness. Animals and birds and plants overlap and merge and fade like a the tumbling chaotic images of a dream. It is as if these houses are haunted by everything they are not; wild, chaotic, alive.
There's plenty more to look through at her website:
www.nancyloughlin.com

















"Deer Park" 30"x40" oil on wood panel 2009


















"House Hunting" 30"x40" oil on wood panel 2009



















"The Living Room" 30"x40" oil on wood panel 2009























"The Waiting Room" 48"x36" oil on wood panel 2009






















"Wolf's Den" 28"x22" oil on paper on canvas 2007
Her work can also be found at www,lindahodgesgallery.com which is where I first saw it.

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

Casey Inch

Casey Inch has an obvious interest in traditional romantic landscape painting with hints of Bierstadt, Friedrich and a direct reference to Frederic Edwin Church. Recently he has been using this romatic approach to depict scenes of catastrophe and devastation, something the romantics themselves were not unknown to do. But there is something peculiarly modern about these as well, tying in somehow with our contemporary apocalyptic obsessions. It's a striking and successful approach bringing a life and energy to his work that is not as apparent in his earlier more benign landscapes. This represents most of his large work on this theme from his website, but there are also some fairly stunning miniature paintings (3" x 4"), his earlier work, and a few nice graphite drawings. I look forward to seeing what he does next.
Go to caseyinch.com













"Cotopaxi" 2008 oil on linen 48" x 85"

Here is the painting by Church that he is referencing and a short article from which this image was taken...










Frederic Edwin Church, 1826-1900), Cotopaxi, 1862. Oil on canvas, 48 x 85 inches. Photograph © The Detroit Institute of Arts.

















"Crash #1" 2009 oil on linen 14" x 18"
















"Crash #2" 2009 oil on linen 24" x 36"















"Storm" 2009 oil on linen 50" x 72"

Casey Inch's painting "Cotopaxi" was featured in the spring issue of Studio Visit magazine which is how I became aware of his work.

Caitlin Hackett

To this day I enjoy sketching with a ball point pen. I've always thought of it as part of my intrinsic laziness. You know, just using what ever is convenient instead of hassling with crowquills and brushes. But if I'd seen Caitlin Hackett's work early on in my career I might well have taken it up as my medium of choice. She employs the ballpoint pen, among other materials, to create some exquisitely rendered pieces of dark surrealism. These first two are large. I can imagine that the initial impact of the work would be quite impressive, only to be surpassed by slow and careful close-up examination of the details.
You can see some more at her website caitlinhackett.carbonmade.com






















"In the Aftermath", 4' 7" x 5' 11" ballpoint pen, ebony pencil, water color, colored pencil, gesso






















"In the Aftermath" detail





















untitled, 4' 7" x 4' 8" ballpoint pen, water color, ebony pencil, colored pencil















untitled detail


















early work






















an illustration