This is a selection of some of the artists I follow on Instagram. You may already be familiar with them, if not I hope that there's something here for you to enjoy.
The last newsletter in March! I’m really enjoying taking time each week to think about some things that have caught my attention, or to ponder and share my own thinking, as the week passes along. I hope you enjoy these artists below. This is a sampling of art that I look at that I find inspiring, that I look at because each artist unique ways that they handle paint, but mostly they’re all very poetic painters. Their work gives me so much more than details. It encompasses the idea that painting is poetry. Most are on Instagram, some don’t have websites but do have a good presence on IG. If their name is highlighted, clicking it will take you to their website
Big Sky - acrylic on paper. “ I like to employ a range of materials and techniques in my work, often water based media - acrylic, watercolour, ink - on a variety of surfaces from paper to board, canvas to driftwood. The paintings explore the landscape and coastline of Kent, its flora, fauna and endlessly changing light and atmosphere. Paintings are begun in the field, after an initial period of walking, sketching, observing and committing a place to memory. From this starting point the work starts to take on a life of its own, with chance and accident in the painting process being an important factor in the finished painting.” - Paul Fowler
Mark Dunford
Instagram - @markdunfordartist
Autumn Sunset- Cornwall - oil on panel. “My primary concerns are looking by drawing and using colour in a ‘specific way’. I try to understand how ‘things’ appear by building relationships of colour, scale and shape that make ‘contact’ with the intangible and ever changing appearances. Colour may be used in different ways; it might be copied or adjusted to work. I am driven by how beautiful something looks, trying to balance observation, invention and imagination.” - Mark Dunford
Snowshoe Walk in St. Felix - acrylic. The Nordic landscape has always been a source of inspiration. His work is characterized by the priority given to the atmosphere, the brushstroke casual but fair and the richness of color. His palette, sometimes subtle, sometimes fauve, adjusts to suit the ambiences he wants to create. "I firmly believe that figurative art, especially the landscape, remains very current if it transcends the narrative and in a way becomes a basis for experimenting with gestures, color and light." - Marc Grandbois
The Beaver Pond - acrylic on canvas. “Nature is my greatest inspiration. I have always admired the bright colours and contrasting textures found in the landscapes surrounding me. From smooth, dark river rocks to stretching fields of tall prairie grass, the scenery of Western Canada has always served as an unwavering muse.” -Susan Woolgar
Pintura 257 - mixed media. “My abstract sense manifests on pure shapes , is not about conceptual art, my material paintings are beyond styles , they pursue both tactile and visual response, a desire to touch and explore. My works are made with a mixed technique on canvas, using natural pigments, and textures, everything refering to nature.” - Carolina Iturrospe
Parking Lot With Hedge - oil on canvas. “Plein-air painting is on the periphery in the context of contemporary painting. Among the reasons for this are its inherent difficulties, such as testing the author’s limits while painting outdoors and not being afraid to go against the stream, that is, the mainstream of current major trends in the field of painting. Cityscape plein-air painting seems to be a landscape painting genre that is not outmoded and offers an extensive field for exploring painting themes and technical approaches nowadays. Plein-air painting, however, is reduced to an educational tool in Sunday schools of painting and preparatory courses for art novices. My long-term intention is to raise awareness of the Cityscape painting genre. In the current excess of technically reproducible visual images, authentic, fresh plein-air painting, which does not provide only valuable content, but also fine form, appears to be a good possible direction in which painting can progress.” - Jraj Florek
“Study in Grey” 12x24 oil on panel. “For as long as I can remember, I have had a love of the landscape and the luminous and endless variability of the sky. In 2012, I finally listened to that persistent urge to pick up a brush and attempt to express with paint what has always inspired me. The past few years have presented a multitude of challenges and discoveries; the first of which was the surprising feeling that landscape painting is what I was meant to do.” - John LaPorta
Untitled - acrylic on canvas. “I appreciate the marks within a work of art, including the initial mistakes, accidents, and other struggles left visible even as parts of the representational image become more clarified. Though I start each painting from life or photos, I usually abandon the reference to focus on how the painting functions as a non-representational painting. I sometimes go back to the reference, re-finding and pulling forward parts of the realistic image, but may ultimately obscure them again, drawing the viewer's attention away from the image and back to the line. I aim to find a balance between representation and non-representation.”- Scotty Peak
Elena Shumacher Instagram - @elenashumacher I Can’t find a website for Elena but she has good presence on Instagram.
The Winter Sea - acrylic.
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Thanks for sharing these, Marc. Such a great range of “poetry” in these works. I spent a lot of time on Grandbois’ site: his Nordic scenes were a revelation. They “warmed” my own Nordic and Minnesota heart! Your work brings back my years in Georgia; Grandbois reminds me of my northern Minnesota roots. I’m loving the demos; I’m learning lots and being inspired to get out in my New England landscape.
I love to follow new artists. Thank you for you recommendations.
Thanks for sharing these, Marc. Such a great range of “poetry” in these works. I spent a lot of time on Grandbois’ site: his Nordic scenes were a revelation. They “warmed” my own Nordic and Minnesota heart! Your work brings back my years in Georgia; Grandbois reminds me of my northern Minnesota roots. I’m loving the demos; I’m learning lots and being inspired to get out in my New England landscape.