Animal Paintings

Artist Comments
Artist Guigen Zha paints red lotus flowers under the shining sun. Square blocks of gradient color fill the fragmented scene. He pain...

Artist Comments
A whimsical and dramatic portrait of a stylish figure posed with a lion. "I wanted to create a striking fantasy, playing up the sophistication of the model ag...

Artist Comments
A paper crane flies among a flock of birds against a dusky warm gradient. "The title of this work, 'This Is Not a Flock of Birds,' is a nod to Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte," shares artist Candice Eisenfeld. She takes pleasure in letting her viewers create their own meanings inspired by her work.

About the Artist
As an American exploring issues of identity, artist Candice Eisenfeld paints through the lens of the first American art movement, the Hudson River School. Rather than depicting a specific locale, Candice’s artwork evokes a sense of place. These "inner landscapes" are invented, and often reference photographs taken during travels in southern Appalachia and the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains. Whether real or imagined, her paintings are influenced by the Dutch Masters, Tonalists, and Chinese painting. Produced on a single wooden panel, the ethereal landscapes are often joined with segments of aqueous color fields which act as commentary for the landscapes, like the chorus in a Greek play. The crisp, hard edges separating the landscapes from the color fields command a sense of order in an otherwise fluid and painterly surface. With two or three sections of the panel competing for attention, the painting creates multiple focal points. Candice's art has been displayed in embassies in Namibia and Belarus, held in the collections of Norwest Bank and Northwest...

Artist Comments
The bison and the beetle have a prehistoric elegance about them that I thought would compliment each other perfectly. Symbolically, both represent life and mortality, which has been on my mind lately. To Native Americans, bison are symbolic of sacred life and abundance. And in ancient greek mythology the beetle became revered as a symbol of rebirth and immortality -- its daily journey across the sky became an allegory of human life. The Wallpaper collection is a juxtaposition of masculine meets feminine. I wanted to create a unique series that stands apart from traditional nature paintings, where the wild and somewhat prehistoric aspects of my animals featured contrast against their delicate backdrops. In addition to this, many of my paintings are created with a little bit of underlying symbolism usually sparked from a world event or life moment that I am experiencing. I concentrate on this theme as a therapeutic mantra throughout the creation of the painting. For each painting, different techniques and layers of design are implemented when creating the wall paper effect. To keep the patterns consistent I create a stencil to outline the shapes of my hummingbirds, bugs and fish, and then I hand paint each shape individually. In the areas where I wanted a little more chaos, I would forgo the stencil and eyeball each design. My animals are always painted first, and then I layout the design around them.

About the Artist
Australian-born Alana Clumeck...

Artist Comments
"Great horned owls spend a lot of time sitting and intently watching, rotating their heads to look at whatever interests them, including me," shares artist Emil Morhardt...

Artist Comments
This painting was inspired by the idea that we are shaped by outside forces, but remain unchanged, we persist in the face of adversity. It is what makes us human. My energetic oil paintings of stallions explore and illustrate movement through nature. This work represents an immigrant journey or strength and perseverance. I incorporate both contemporary (watercolor) and traditional (ink calligraphy) painting styles into this series.

About the Artist
Art has been with Shao Yuan Zhang for the majority of his extraordinary, and at times difficult, life journey. Raised in communist China...

Artist Comments
Artist Johansen Newman paints a portrait of a young tattooed woman with short feathery hair and a delicate fishnet top. Beautiful s...