Randall Tiedman

Randall Tiedman is an entirely intuitive artist who starts work on his paintings cold, without plan or reference material. But he seems to follow one of two general approaches. The first is a geometric construction of dark landscapes seemingly carved up, reconstructed and controlled by a cold human presence. There is a miasma to the atmosphere of these places, randomly littered with bridges and canals, landing platforms and pipe-works. They hold the same attraction to me as a good sci-fi disaster novel, combining a stern warning against human hubris and a fascination with decay and ruin. His other approach is more organic exploring the human form instead of the landscape. Here he plies his paint in a manner reminiscent of the fantastic Francis Bacon creating sometimes grotesque but powerful images. My personal preferences lean toward the former but either way there is a clearly a great talent at work here.
But I must say that once again I feel thwarted by the internet. I understand that low resolution images are a necessary way to protect the reproduction rights of artists. But I really think you can go quite bit larger before that becomes a serious problem. And detail shots are always nice. I would love to see these paintings in person. I can only assume that the impact would be far greater.
You can see much more at www.randalltiedman.com
None of the paintings are titled or given sizes. You can click on the images to view them ever so slightly larger.

Mary Porterfield

Mary Porterfiled's work is somewhat difficult to grapple with online. These are large paintings depicting sweeping vistas, often of natural disasters, but the details consist of an elaborate filigree of people, birds, mammals, fish and who knows what else. The images on her website (maryporterfield.com) are not particularly large and there's only a couple detail pictures. But it's enough to give one an idea of the mythic complexity of the work. Ms. Porterfield is an occupational therapist dealing with Alzheimers patients and sees her work as a kind of therapy. That may be the case, but it strikes me as an almost religious exercise, a spiritual examination of the fundamental issues of the human experience. Why are we here? Why do we suffer? The elaborate and undecipherable narrative woven into her paintings is not an explanation but a meditation on these questions.

"Perceiving the Brink" Oil on wood panel 48" x 68"

"Perceiving the Brink" detail

"Church of St.Helen's" Oil on wood panel 47 1/2" x 64 1/2"

"Pool of Life" Oil on wood panel 54" x 46"

"Displaced" Oil on wood panel 40" x 60"

I came across Ms. Porterfiled's work in the latest issue of Studio Visit magazine (volume ten).

Steve Gompf

Steve Gompf's art is not just one thing. First there are the objects: Televisors. Televisors were the early precursors of televisions. There is a website called teleseum.org where you can find out more about the fascinating history of these devices. Except... well, this is also the art of Steve Gompf. He has created an entire alternate history of the early years of television that adhere's closely enough to the bizarre truth that it all seems plausible. It isn't. But the fact that he makes it seem so is a testament to his art. But there's more. He also creates the video loops that play on his alternate historical apparatuses, mutated into little nightmares mostly from old Eadweard Muybridge work (see some here). He also works with sound and music but as I'm unfamiliar with this aspect of his work I can say nothing about it except this; if it's on a par with everything else he does it's probably brilliant. Let me just add that if you are ever in the Phoenix area, go out of your way to look at one of his brilliantly restored gems from an era that never really was.
You can also follow him on Facebook.

Schafer & Son Televisor 1919 American

Televisor 1910 German























Federal Style Televisor 1928 American

Harvath Televisor 1912 Austro-Hungarian

Ansonia Televisor 1894 American

Butch Belair

New York artist/illustrator/photographer Bernard "Butch" Belair likes to spend his spare time painting neighborhood scenes in a moleskin sketchbook. Or he did. He had a special Flickr site dedicated to his endeavors but there hasn't been anything new on it since 2008. Which is a shame because these simple paintings not only capture the spirit of place but really convey the simple joy of drawing as well. They're wonderful to look through and I hope you will. None of this work appears on his website which consists mostly of his purely commercial photographic and digital work. Interestingly it may be that this work that has interrupted his sketching in an unusual way. Below you will see an example of one of his photo illustrations and some samples of the well known Bratz dolls. He is suing Bratz for copyright infringement. I don't know where the case is at currently but I hope he wins if only because it might give him the time and financial resources to do less commercial work and more painting.














Porchview 2






















Porchview 3






















Under BQE 1






















North 6th























Bee 1


Did Bratz steal the big head, big feet, big eye look look from Butch Belair?

















photo illustration by Butch Belair












Bratz Dolls