James Jean

James Jean's paintings are like windows into some luminous sub-conscious paradise.

Nadia Moss

Nadia Moss creates these captivating ink drawings. Her characters are spare and mysterious, engaged in cultish rituals. I love the way they are hardly rendered at all, really only the barest suggestions of figures.

André Butzer

I love these 2009 paintings by German artist André Butzer. They remind me of play-doh, even down to the grimy brown smears from mixing too many colours at once.
 

Erwin Gross

I love the concrete texture in these Erwin Gross paintings, at his show at Bernd Kugler.

Stef Driesen

Strange ghost-photo colours and evocative shapes are hallmarks of Stef Driesen's particular brand of abstraction. I like!

Keith Thompson

 

Keith Thompson's concept works have a depth of meaningful detail that's staggering, and something of a rarity in the field. In the bulk of concept art details tend to be extra pieces of nondescript jewellery or fluttery hairstyles, and I know because I've seen and done both many a time. 

But these are a cut above.Take the church-steeple mask the giant wears or the goblin sentry on the character's hat in the last picture, so well thought-out that they make the picture memorable, even in graphite. 

 Each picture come with an interesting story or description as well. His website makes for addictive browsing.

Hank Schmidt in der Beek

So, these are photo works. I've broken a sacred trust here! In my defence, they have paintings in them. These examples are part of a series that won the Szpilman Award for artist Hank Shmidt in der Beek in 2009. (yes, they're photos and from 2009, sorry.)

I just thought they were hilarious. He "stands in the manner of a plein air painter surrounded by
mountain scenery and paints the pattern of his shirt on canvas."
Have a look at the other work on his gallery website for a fun dose of abstract expressionism as well.

Jeremy Dower

I was seriously going to post this yesterday but thought I'd save it, now it looks like I'm reblogging Beautiful Decay >:(


Jeremy Dower's portfolio is like a glorious collectors case of embryonic aliens preserved in formaldehyde. Good stuff.  There's a fantastic feeling of intimacy- poodle-people and fractal-teddies seem like they could almost come to life. Earlier works are also interesting, with more emphasis on fractal patterns and other geometric curios.

d.r3sto Superhero Dinosaurs

Look, there's two kinds of people in the world- people who like Superhero Dinosaurs and people who are wimps and probably wet their pants.

Thanks d.r3sto, I don't know your real name.

Ivan Durrant

Though he is better known for paintings of floating and otherwise unusually situated cows, I was charmed by this Ivan Durrant painting 'Flinders horse 1971'. I would provide links but  internet coverage on Durrant is woeful, you would do better with a Google search.

Brooks Salzwedel

Brooks Salzwedel is one of a few contemporary artists experimenting with transparent materials as a surface for painting and drawing. Using graphite on resin layers, Salzwedel creates landscapes suspended in an ethereal haze. What comes across as depth is created simply by drawing foreground and background elements on different layers. These are some works I would really love to see in real life, since even though they look good digital I'm sure the slight 3D would be fantastic in person.

Ken Searle

I'm not sure what to say about Ken Searle except that I find his work strangely compelling.

Noah Bradley

Concept artists and illustrators sure have it tough, working hard and doing all the boring technical studies only to be scoffed at by 'true artists'. At the same time however, you have only to look at say conceptart.org to find artists with a collaborative spirit and drive for personal improvement completely unmatched by the rest of the art world.

Noah Bradley creates convincingly environments out of nothing but his own head, and contributes to the illustrator community through tutorials and commentary.

Amanda Marburg

Amanda Marburg's work in the Archibald Prize was my pick of this year, and that's saying something considering I'm a shameless Ben Quilty devotee. This was so charming, and the smart-ass "i put the abstract INSIDE yo photo painting!" tactic works so perfectly. Check out her other work, and keep an eye out for a solo show.

 

PS: yep, reviving the blog. I was overseas... and... lazy.