Robert Crooker

Reflections #1, Original Acrylic Animal Painting on Canvas

2013

Artist Commentary: I have been asked numerous times by my loyal customers to create more holiday winter cards of my paintings. As I was looking outside my window in this month of March, the snowy scenes in front of me were an ideal inspiration for me. And to make things even better for my creative juices, Paris had just been covered a few weeks before by a couple inches of snow. This happens very rarely and the whole city was paralysed. Parisians were unhappy, as always, but Paris under the snow is magnificent. I asked my good parisian friend to share with me the pictures she took of Paris under the snow. Between the winter view from my window and my friend’s pictures, I had enough material to immerse myself into this project. In 3 weeks, I created 8 paintings and I had the best time of my life!!! I wish I could do that all the time. I painted holiday lights, ornaments, some snow, and I even had an american cardinal in snowy Paris!!! I felt right at home between my 2 countries: France and the US! What wintery scenes or holiday scenes do you find magnificent? Words that describe this piece: snow, tree, blue jay...

Artist Commentary: The intricate and complex branching patterns of a giant willow tree stand out in ghostly contrast to storm clouds in the background. A patch of illuminated sky in...

Windy Days 31.5 x 39.5 x 0.75, 5.0 lbs Acrylic on canvas Hand signed by artist Artist's Commentary: "The whimsical painting allows one to daydream. One views the colours and images...

Wild Beauty, Original Contemporary Farmhouse Equestrian Painting 24" x 18" x 0.75" (HxWxD) Acrylic on Canvas Hand-signed by the artist. A simple approach to an equestrian portrait, this gestural acrylic painting by artist April Moffatt puts the horse face to face with the viewer of the composition, engaging with a subtle eye contact to evoke a deeper emotional connection. The neutral color palette is reminiscent of a sepia toned photograph, which gives a sense of nostalgia and charm to the work. There is something calming about the painting, perhaps due to the therapeutic nature horses can have with humans. This work would be right at home on a barn ranch in Texas, but could also help bring the mid-western, country vibe to a more eclectic or transitional environment as well. Artist Commentary: Loose brushstrokes and expressive energy were used to convey the energy that resides just beneath a horses skin...

Cat Skeleton, Original Signed Contemporary Black and Pink Painting 12" x 9" x 0.75" (HxWxD) Acrylic on Canvas Hand-signed and dated by the artist. Finished with a gloss varnish. A black background allows the subject matter of this acrylic painting by artist Lindsay Hall, a cat skeleton, to stand out in stark contrast. An item in a cabinet of curiosities, this memento mori work serves as a pausing point to sit and reflect on the fleeting nature of life, both our own and the creatures around us. Pinks, purples, and oranges peek through the white of the articulated skeleton. These colors are usually associated with warmth and more cheery emotions, so their inclusion in this piece, which many would interpret as somber, is interesting. Ultimately, this work can be seen as a celebration of life and the enduring beauty of nature an appreciation for the anatomy that shapes our world. Artist Commentary: I painted this when I lived in Richmond, VA above an oddities shop. Being in such close proximity to various curiosities like taxidermied animals, preserved animal organs, coffins, and the like definitely kept my mind in the spooky mood all year round. The building itself was black and had a giant grim reaper...

Artist Commentary: They were just flying at me and the scene was perfect so I took the picture. And then it had to be painted... Keywords: Water, Mountains, Sea, Pelicans Artist Biography: Robert...

Sybiline's (CAN based) "Afternoon Delight" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a Sphynx cat eyeing a pink teacup with milk and plate with a w...

Josh Talbott's (US based) "Who's Driving This Thing" is an acrylic painting that depicts yellow scorpion appendages with the body of a black car having been released from a glass jar. Bio: Josh Talbott grew up in suburban/rural Georgia in the southern US. His first work as a professional artist was in scenic painting and murals for various production companies. An attempt to deepen his well of possibilities led to New Orleans where as a street artist he sold works to people from all over the world before loosing everything in hurricane Katrina. With short stints in Santa Fe and then Los Angeles Josh arrived in the small coastal city of Los Osos, California where he lives and works today. His curiosity is voracious and interests are many, including scuba/ free diving, sailing, surfing, gardening, geology, rock hounding, rationality, AI, history, and philosophy. In his studio there is always an audiobook on, and outside of the studio there are all manner of activities making there way into his work. He has many private collectors scattered across the globe and murals in San Francisco. ARTIST STATEMENT We live in a time of extreme and accelerated change, growing complexity, and specialization. At every stage in our human trajectory from primitive beginnings crawling out of the sea to the present gauntlet of challenges, our thinking tools and their uses are central to the story of what it means to be human. My work is informed by a fascination with thinking tools and the effects of programming and environment through the different phases of life and our capacity for storytelling. My practice consists of constructing small-scale still life scenarios of toys and other artifacts of human development, then creating photorealistic acrylic paintings of these scenes. The work juxtaposes the familiar and playful with a contemporary, complex, adult world. While I am interested in the science of the mind, and what it means to be a human, my work seldom features the human form, focusing instead on the objects and items that are frequently left behind. As such, the subject of the painting becomes the viewer him or herself because their own humanity is ultimately what is revealed. My work honors toys as thinking tools for small people and the scenes depicted explore the ways in which the culture of our formative years leaves a lasting mark and continues to shape our storytelling. The plastic artifacts of my formative years carry memories of simultaneous confusion and wonder at the world around me. These are sensations and emotions still very much present in my life. What were your imaginings and dramas when you played with toys? Are you living them today? The multileveled still life paintings of familiar toys are bright and accessible and connect to the viewer's nostalgia and playfulness while provoking deeper insights into our current evolutionary, cultural, and technological moment. I place each little curio with care into meaningful relationship to their interlocutors and environment. The plastic dinosaurs often depicted are emblematic of childhood curiosities, of great wonder and speculation at past worlds and the depth of evolutionary time, and yet they are made of a material that illustrates our shortsightedness, a quintessential human quality that makes it quite possible that these plastic creations will outlast us all. I do my best to draw inspiration and resources from everywhere to build a visual language. In my divergent path I find the musical compositions and the story of composer, Philip Glass inspiring. The story of his devotion to his craft and his subsequent successes have encouraged and inspired me. I'm influenced by writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Sapolsky, and Yuval Noah Harari, the many books by Simon Winchester, Daniel Dennet, Robert Wright...

Kathleen Keifer is a California-based internationally collected artist. She is a leading force of the New California Realism. Keifer brings a fresh perspective to her hyperrealistic ...

Kathleen Keifer's original artworks represent one of the most significant expressions of New California Realism. Keifer brings a fresh perspective to her colorful scenes of everyday ...

Kathleen Keifer is a California-based internationally collected artist. She is a leading force of the New California Realism. Kathleen brings a fresh, clean perspective to her colorf...

Provenance: Madison Gallery (Madison Connecticut) bears their label verso. Hunting and fishing cabin themed artwork in a hyper realist or photo realist style. James Carter (Born 1948) is active/lives in Connecticut. James O Carter is known for Trompe l'oeil still life painting. James Carter is known for his for his airbrush acrylic paintings, serigraphs and lithographs. Some of his paintings have written text, and his style combines carefully controlled trompe l'oeil and abstract Surrealism influences. James Carter was born in Port Chester, New York, in 1948. He studied at Silvermine College of Art in Connecticut and graduated with a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute of Art. Carter’s paintings and prints have been exhibited at the Zenith Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Horizon Gallery, New York, and the Bell Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut. His still lifes display the influence of Surrealist painters of the 1930s such as Rene Magritte and Max Ernst. Like the Surrealists, Carter juxtaposes unexpected objects – teacups, whales, and blue skies, for example – which often sit uncomfortably within his pictorial space. But he has also been influenced by the late-nineteenth-century American trompe l’oeil painters William Harnett...