Stella Im Hultberg’s paintings are conceived in varying combinations of ink, watercolor, and oils on paper, wood and canvas. Her portraits of women are rendered in easy, flowing lines with soft hues that transcend the typical critiques of feminine beauty, inherent in today’s self conscious society.
Hultberg originally studied Industrial Design at CSU, which naturally segued into work as a toy designer early on in her career. Work in the design industry serendipitously led to her building on her natural talents as an artist and a career as a self-taught painter soon followed. Having grown up in Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, she has a diverse blend of cultural influences to pull from. She is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.
Natalia Fabia is of Polish descent and was raised in Southern California where she graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Inspired by light, color, punk rock music, hot chicks and sparkles, Fabia is fascinated with “hookers”, which fuels her paintings of sultry women.
Her work has been featured in numerous gallery exhibitions including Thinkspace Gallery, M Modern and The Shooting Gallery. She has been featured in Angeleno, Juxtapoz, and New York Arts magazine as well as appearances on Miami Ink, Fox 11 News and Indie 103.1.
To view more of her work please visit her website.
After years of chasing the monsters under his bed, Greg “Craola” Simkins has reemerged into the everyday world to create images of what he saw in those forgotten lands. Simkins didn’t always use a paintbrush to display this mob of characters, but spent many of his early years filling sketchbooks with images that were later spray-painted on walls, and finally found their way onto canvases. It is his careful weaving of pop culture, the old masters, nature, carnival kitsch, and (most importantly) his warped imagination, that makes Greg Simkins a sought-after surrealist painter today.
Mary Becoming Annette
(click on images to enlarge for detail) The Lost Thought
Winter Glass
Seasons Change
Mrs Array
Gretel
Damsel
For more of his incredible work visit his website here.
I have been a long time admirer of David Downtown's illustrations. I've got a whole file of images I've pulled from magazines over the years of his work. Here are a few of my favorites.
I was looking for a new illustrator or artist to feature since I haven't in a little bit and I stumbled upon the work of Kevin Dart co-owner of Fleet Street Scandal and one of his creations Yuki 7. Well, it blew me away.
Take a look at this theatrical trailer for 'A Kiss From Tokyo' -
Here's a little background on how Yuki 7 came about from Kevin's blog:
"While I was in London working on the BBC Olympics commercial, I was soaking in a lot of new inspirations and thinking deeply about where I wanted to go next with my art. When I returned, I was simply struck by an idea: creating a globe-trotting female superspy. In my head she was incredibly cunning, beautiful, and always impeccably dressed. As she came to life on paper, she felt very familiar. She embodied a lot of qualities that I’d been trying to capture in my work for some time.
Looking for more inspiration, I combed through some folders of reference I had collected over the last few years, immersing myself in campy Euro-spy film posters, 1960’s Thai pop music album covers, and mid-century modern architecture. I went back and re-watched some of my favorite spy films like You Only Live Twice and discovered new ones like Deadlier than the Male. A world slowly started to form in my head and I could feel hundreds of backlogged ideas and unfinished stories suddenly collide into one cohesive mass. Later on, I realized Yuki 7 had been building for years even though she arrived in a flash of insight."
As it turns out Yuki 7 has a cult following. She's got her own Facebook page and many fans (established artists in their own right) have done their own versions, tribute artwork if you will, of Yuki 7 that can be seen on Kevin Dart's website I urge you to take a look at some of his other incredible work. He's got quite the resume (Disney, Cartoon Network, Pixar, Warner Bros., to name a few).
One of my personal favorites is this artwork he did for No Doubt.
I'll leave you with some additional Yuki 7 images to enjoy:
Little is known for certain about Banksy. He started painting graffiti in his hometown of Bristol, England, in the 1990s. Since then, his trademark stenciled murals and free-form creations have adorned walls and invaded public spaces across Europe and from San Francisco to Sydney.
Banksy's art is often pegged as anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. He specializes in a strange brand of self-promotion: he'll sell six-figure creations and then sermonize on the evils of consumerism. In April, the auction house Bonham's sold his Space and Bird, a spray-painting on steel, for almost $600,000, and recently a set of 10 of his works went for more than $1 million.
Stella Im Hultberg’s paintings are conceived in varying combinations of ink, watercolor, and oils on paper, wood and canvas. Her portraits of women are rendered in easy, flowing lines with soft hues that transcend the typical critiques of feminine beauty, inherent in today’s self conscious society.
