Art Blog by Isabelle Bryer

Sh*t My Kids Created?

You might be familiar with Pablo Picasso's famous quote: "All children are artists. The problem is to remain an artist once we grow up". Being curious about how we can help our children express their inborn sense of creativity, I began to research what child experts recommend. The main points are:

• Set the stage for creative expression.

• Provide large blocks of time for artistic exploration.

• Be accepting of children's processing.

• Give them permission to do things their way as long as their safety is not at risk.

• Provide ample space indoors and outdoors.

• Provide resources (props, materials, creative junk..)

 

Now if you REALLY want to see how artistic kids are and how they chose to express their creative impulse, the best place to visit is Sh*t My Kids Ruined.

This is one of the most entertaining websites I have seen and I pulled out a few inspired masterpieces. Apparently the parents of the children whose work is featured here have followed the advice of the experts and given their kids the freedom of a little unsupervised time which, if you ask me, is what every artist deserves.

 

Body Painting or Tattoo Art. Existed in most tribalist cultures. The young artist here takes his mission very seriously.

 

Body Painting with diaper cream. A new sticky medium for a tried and true art form.

 

Hand prints on walls. Reminiscent of prehistoric cave paintings. Probably the first artistic way for man to leave his mark on his environment.

 

Study of transparencies. Permanent marker on glass and wood. Creates a beautiful stained glass effect when the sun shines through.

 

Body Ornementation with stickers. Great choice of neon colors.

 

Abstract Expressionism. Shaving cream masterpiece on body, on mirror and on...the cord of what looks like a hair straightener.

 

Use of everyday objects in artistic creation...

...to bash or cast a poetic light on consumer society (reminds us of the Ready-Made concept of surrealist Marcel Duchamp)

Here we can appreciate the clever use of panty-liners to depict a family.

 

And my favorite one for the beautiful heartfelt message it conveys is the following:

Metal etching technique on mom's car with what appears to be a sharp rock or maybe a screwdriver.

 

If you want to read about the reaction of the lucky parents and see more creative ways to alter your environment, visit Sh*t My Kids Ruined.

Nudity and Fattening Food

Considering the fact that it is almost Thanksgiving, I decided to blog about New York artist Lee Price. I didn't know much about her or why she paints what she paints but photos of her paintings had been in my "Belles Images" folder for a while (that's how I feel about art, I like when the image stands on its own, you don't need a whole speech about it to love it. You also don't need to know how much it costs to find value in it. If it moves you then it's good art!). But I digress.

Lee Price paints, with an impeccable technique, beautiful nude pictures of herself eating fattening foods.

Always in private, in a bath or on her bed. She is surrounded by cupcakes, or ice cream, or donuts

and we watch her from an aerial perspective, a voyeuristic angle, chowing down desserts and grilled cheese sandwiches...

...or even Chinese food straight out of the box

In an interview about her work Lee said that her subject "illustrates women's issues with food, compulsive eating and compulsive behavior in general"

She says that women have been raised to give and nurture and that "food is one way we have chosen to give back to ourselves, to attempt to nurture ourselves"

And then I realized that when I discovered her work, her visual message about eating disorder went right over my head. Being French also means being a tad obsessed with food and for me Lee Price's paintings were simply a realistic rendition of a perfect happy moment of pleasure. An expression of the sensuality of food and nudity that really "talked to me" since I have never met a chocolate cake or a cherry pie I didn't want.

I think this shows again that when we fall in love with a particular image it is because it resonates with us, our lives, our culture, our individual experience. It is independent of any conceptual message and one doesn't have to intellectually "understand" art to like it.

You can see more of Lee Price's work on her website. Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Poetic Universe of Rebecca Rebouche

Today I discovered the art of talented New Orleans painter Rebecca Rebouche. On her Twitter account she describes herself as "a painter of trees, balloons, birds and other magic", a description as unpretentious as it is accurate. But the way she paints trees, balloons and birds has a refreshing and old fashioned naivete that I love. Not to mention that she likes paintings "my kind of trees", unrealistic trees that have something on every branch...

...and that let you imagine the whole story of what happened in the forest that day.

Rebecca paints naive skinny trees that a child might have drawn to illustrate a poem at school...

with a charming folksy and descriptive quality.

She likes to paint forest animals and, strangely enough, she likes to paint beds.

Preferably unmade and preferably outdoor beds made of growing branches.

People are conspicuously absent in her images. They seem to have just vanished in a hurry and left behind their shoes, umbrellas, bicycles or clothes to dry.

Of all Rebecca Rebouche's pieces I think my favorite is the one she is sitting in front of here:

It reminds me of Marc Chagall, a beautiful surrealistic landscape where proportions don't matter and everything happily floats into the sky.

You can see much more of Rebecca's artwork on her website and read her writings on her blog.

 

 

The Alice in Wonderland of Pat Andrea

Lewis Carroll published his most famous book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in 1865 and since then it has inspired myriads of illustrators and artists. I believe the reason is that the story of "Alice" is riddled with dreamlike and nightmarish fantasy, lack of logic, and bizarre characters. Most of us artists just love the strange and unusual. Who could resist the urge of making portraits of the cast of eccentrics who live in Wonderland? Certainly not me:

 

 

 

 

Last year, one of my very favorite European artists created an art exhibit around the theme of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". His name is Pat Andrea, he is a Deutsch painter who lives in Paris and Buenos Aires. I discovered his work in the late 80's and have been keeping an eye on him ever since. His art can be found in major museums in Europe and the U.S and art experts call him a neo-figurative painter. Take a look at his unique and even violent vision of Alice. Hold on to your mouse, it is kind of a wild ride:

 

 

 

Some of the most famous scenes of the book are easy to recognize. Others not as much but you can still spot some of the characters from the book.

I love the magical realism of his work. As you can see his Alice doesn't have the sweetness and naivete of the classic illustrations.

 

She can even be downright scary.

 

 

Notice the mix of detailed painted areas and seemingly unfinished pencil parts. This is one of my favorite things in Pat Andrea's work.

 

 

And his sense of color blows me away.

 

 

One day owning an original painting from Pat Andrea is on my bucket list.

You can see more of his other paintings and artwork here

TEN WOMEN on Montana Avenue

Today is an exciting day for me: I am now an authentic, curated, official member of California's famous artist-coop Ten Women Galleries.

After losing their lease to a restaurant at their (now, our <grin>) 2nd Venice location a few weeks ago, Ten Women is opening a new shop/gallery on posh Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. I would love to show you a few images of the work made by the talented women of Ten Women except that since there are actually 23 of us it might be too much information for one post.

Imagine dividing a space equally amongst 23 artists so all women have the same chance to display and sell their artwork. Well, it can only be accomplished if everyone involved is reasonable, patient and all around easy going and it seems the artists at Ten Women are exactly that. I will keep you posted regarding the Grand Opening date which is coming soon. In the meantime here is a photo of the display of my prints on wood and limited edition prints.

Should I mention that I had to bring with me a professional (my husband) to hang it? Because sadly I can't properly hang several pictures without making at least 4 holes for each.

The new Gallery and shop will be located at;

1128 Montana Ave (corner of 12th and parking in the rear)

Santa Monica, CA 90403

 

You can see the website by heading over to 10 Women Galleries where you can take a look at what the other amazing artists are doing.

 

Animal Magnetism

Being the image-aholic that I am, a few weeks ago I was browsing the internet for my next visual fix. This is when I stumbled upon this photograph by Ryan McGinley. I carefully put it away in a special folder (which is a feat in itself since most of the content of my Mac is thrown willy-nilly on my desktop). I pulled it out for you here:

The beauty and purity of this picture are just breathtaking. The mix of the wild and the nude triggers some kind of primal reaction of fascination. Not to mention that one is wondering how she managed to throw the beast on her shoulders (I am guessing with several assistants with stepstools?). Anyway, I loved this picture so much that I wanted to share it with you on this post.

 

 

Also I couldn't resist to add an extra simplified version of it here:

Artist unknown.

Hair Envy

As far as I can remember my hair has always been thick, curly and hard to manage. I think this might be the reason why I felt so taken when I discovered the illustrations of Vancouver artist Julie Morstad. It was like a nice big glob of detangler running through my hair.

Her illustrations are surreal and original

They have an old fashion graphic quality

with a new eery twist

and a beautiful poetic simplicity

When I see so much talent and grace achieved with only a few lines

It makes me want to drop my paintbrushes and bright colors

and grab an ink pen instead.

You can see more of Julie Morstad's illustrations here.

The Garden of Earthly Delights

The term Surrealism might have been officially invented in 1920's Paris but medieval and visionary artist Hieronymus Bosch had been "doing" Surrealism way before his time. He was a Dutch artist born in the fifteen century. As a lover of all things beautiful-but-eery or bizarrely appealing, I would like to share with you a few details of Bosch's most famous piece "The Garden of Earthly Delights"

This tryptich represents 3 different scenes, first heaven, then naked men and women living a life of debauchery, then humanity being punished by God and sent to suffer in hell.

The folly of man eventually bringing him to his own demise seems oddly familiar today.

In these details of the larger painting above, you can have a closer look at the religious propaganda used to promote the fear of hell...

Has anyone been to Burning Man? This painting is just how I imagine it to be.

At the time these pieces were painted it was widely believed that women were the source of all temptations and decadence...

The reason was that they couldn't help it, it was in their nature

Humans were involved with grotesque animals...

and as a punishment for living in sin you could be devoured by a terrifying half-man half-bird monster.

Bosch's art has a fascinating beauty that has inspired generations of artists to this day. Despite the overtly dark religious message of the medieval times, you have to be amazed by his twisted, incredible imagination and talent.

 

 

Levitation in the Forest at Midnight

I love art that tells a story...images with mysterious atmosphere and magical settings.

Here is a short step-by-step of how I painted (with acrylic paint) "Enchanted", the portrait of a peaceful maiden that takes place in a dark snowy forest at midnight (an unlikely story, I know)

After sketching the trees of my forest I loosely paint the colored underlayer of the image. I like to have bright colors as an undercoat. I cover every inch of the canvas, no white should be left.

 

Then I start adding the browns of my trees...

 

I keep on darkening the colors of the forest...

 

Now it is time to add the main character. I draw her silhouette on top of my background with a white pencil. Then I start using a dry-brushing technique in white. Like a little ghost of a girl suspended in the air...

 

The white underlayer makes an opaque base for the colors I will use on the girl.

 

And here is my final "Enchanted". A blissfully sleeping blond girl floating in mid-air under the moonlight with the birds watching over her...

 

A sleeping fox is curled up on her dress...

 

She radiates love and serenity.