Audrey Kawasaki

I think I have to officially thank my friend Arvin for turning me on to Audrey's work, although I had seen it before, it was going to get a print at her Thinkspace opening a few months ago that I got to see a full show of her work in person and up close.

As I've been painting more and more recently, and thinking about where I want to take my own art, I've been studying her style a lot more, and admiring her sense of color and the soft erotic nature of her female forms. I also love the way she works in animals into her pieces- it's very intimate and emotional in a very subtle but strong way.


http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com

 

 

 

Eyvind Earle

 I wish there were more books of Evyind Earle's art out there- everything's out of print! 

He was the art director for Disney's Sleeping Beauty, but also an accomplished mid-century artist/ illustrator.

Here's an interesting article about his work at Disney- apparently he wasn't so liked by the 9 Old Men, but Disney had faith in Earle's unusual and striking production design.

Krista Huot

Another amazing contemporary artist working in Los Angeles is Krista Huot, whose work I just became acquainted with at the Crazy for Cult 2 show at G1988 in August.  I was so swept away by her Snowfall over Poppies painting, which was one of my favorites of the show.

Again, I love the fantastic fairy-tale like charm, yet there's still an undercurrent of darkness and foreboding in her works.  The colors are so rich and warm, and the way she renders the female form (especially the eyes) I find myself emulating over and over again in my own work, because I admire it so much.

I really dig her recent series, which are portraits of plants as rendered as female forms, and she has some works that are very fairy tale-like (or in some cases, retellings of fairy tales, like Cinderella).  Definitely an artist to check out!

Krista Huot's website
Flicker site

Snowfall over Poppies

Death of a Maiden

Hemlock

Trumpets of Datura

Sylvia Ji

I just caught one of Sylvia Ji's paintings on the cover of an LA Weekly, and WOW. I'm just blown away by the beauty of her Dios de los Muertos paintings..

I love the feminine qualities (delicate yet sexy), the Day of the Dead references, the colors, and the gothic meets old west saloon girl qualities.

She's a contemporary LA artist- currently exhibits down at Corey Helford. Definitely worth keeping an eye on!

Article on Metromix
Corey Helford Gallery
Some pics on flickr

Marigold

Blue Rose

Dona Delarosa

Rosemary

Mary Blair

Of course, what self respecting animator-colorist can go without admiring the mad skills of the ever talented Mary Blair?

For those of you who don't know her, you should for many, many reasons. In a nutshell, she was a highly influential female artist who worked for Walt Disney on both legendary films and rides, as well as a prolific illustrator and artist of the mid 20th century.

These are just a small sampling of some of her pieces that I love. I really dig her color sense, the way she understands composition, and the way she handles simplifying shapes and forms.  I also love the rough texture that shows through the simple shapes via the tempura paint medium.

Images graciously from Cartoon Modern and a wonderful collection of her images over on Flickr. There are also two illustrated books over on Amazon of her concept art from Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella.