Jeff Bellerose

There are a lot of fine academic landscape painters lurking about in the world craning their necks at dramatic scenery. But after a while the sweeping vistas and the towering cityscapes can grow a little tiresome. They're often beautifully rendered but even beauty pales when it becomes too commonplace. Often all that is required is a subtle shift in view. Jeff Bellerose frequently hunts about for a slightly different take an old favorites. In most instances he finds a way to paint these ubiquitous themes from a new angle, a very simple shift in point of view, bringing the subject matter back to life with stunning ease.
Color and craftsmanship are, of course, key to painting and he knows his business. But he uses composition and design to create paintings that stand apart.
See more of his work at
jeffbellerose.webnode.com
and at
www.thomasreynolds.com













"Incline" 24"x40" oil on linen
















"Inside Out" 20"x30"























"Stairs" 30"x24" oil on linen























"Tension"

Damon Mohl

I think it's high time for a little apocalyptic sci-fi horror. Damon Mohl's work is currently on a series of linked blogs but he apparently has a website on the way. I'm looking forward to it.
His work is clearly that of an obsessive. Browsing your way through the various pages and different styles feels a little like wandering around through the dreams of a man that your not quite sure is completely sane (but you kind of like him anyway). If the paintings aren't your thing, check out his drawings. They're different. If that doesn't suit you, try his installations. Or his photographs. There's got to be something amid all this chaotic creativity that's going to grab you, crawl inside and stick somewhere in the back of your brain for a while (occasionally wriggling uncomfortably perhaps).
(start here: damonmohl.blogspot.com)
There's even a few other things to look at on myartspace.com
click on images below to view them larger!














"Summit" oil on canvas 75"x125" 2008

















"The Ticket Booth" oil on canvas 49"x66" 2006
















"The Black Pillar of Smoke" oil on canvas 44"x67" 2005























"Distillation Chamber" (2008) from a series of objects and photographs called "Maladies of the Vine" which the artist says would be best displayed on the walls of an old wooden shack deep in the mountains.






















detail

















untitled photograph (from a series and book called "Trials and Tribulations in the Wilderness")

Jason E. Kelley

Jason Kelley did not invent strip photography, but he did introduce me to the concept and he's using it in a pretty unique way. First, a quick explanation. Strip photography involves slowly winding the film in-camera behind a thin exposure slit, creating what is essentially a time lapse scan of.. well whatever you are photographing. Go elsewhere for more technical information. There's all kinds of odd applications but Jason recognizes that one great potential is to create still images that are actually short movies. What you see is a single image but it was created by recording action. Moving objects appear relatively still (but with fascinating distortions) while the stationary background appears to blur past. He occasionally goes so far as to set the whole thing up like a movie, complete with costumes and sets. The banding lines you see result from the film being wound slowly by hand across exposure strip. Slight variations in winding speed affect the exposure. There are no digital effects being applied here.
Go to his Flickr site to see more. There's also plenty of other photography.
And he has a new website: www.jasonekelleyphotography.com

I've provided detail shots to draw you in, but you really need to click on the long thin images and see the whole thing writ large, as it were.



"Sauvie Dogs"




















"Sauvie Dogs" detail






"Tea Party"















"Tea Party" detail









"St. Johns Parade"







"The Thief"

Aaron Morgan Brown

Aaron Morgan Brown employs a wonderful photo based realist technique to depict scenes that are often decidedly surreal. Reflected explosions occur amid scenes of suburban normalcy. African wildlife haunts the homes of the upper middle class. Unpredictable performances are enacted in unlikely venues. At other times the scenes are quite plausible, especially in his museum tableaux (rather surreal places in their own way). But even his most ordinary images capture a feeling of quiet discontinuity, and harbor implications of the unexpected. Reflections and contrasting scenes within a single image are devices he uses with tremendous effect. Throughout his work, the world that the artist sees is superimposed directly onto the world that the artist remembers, re-imagines and feels.
There's plenty of work to look through on his website: www.aaronmorganbrown.com


















"Arcadia Revisited" 50"x60" oil on canvas 2009











"Still Life with Oil Car" 20"x40" oil on canvas 2009











"Exodus 3" 25"x50" oil on canvas 2008












"Museology 11" 24"x46" oil on canvas 2004














"Natural Law 3 (Safety in Numbers)" 48"x72" oil on canvas 2004