New Drippy Surreal Portraits from Akira Beard

Detroit based artist Akira Beard has a self-described obsession with the human face and hot color palettes. When we last saw him, he was living in San Francisco and celebrating his ‘American Inconomics” show (featured here). His drippy, surreal watercolors break apart the expressions of iconic faces into studies of anatomy and skin tone. Among these are cult film characters and humanitarian heroes he admires, from Scarface to Jesus. If it weren’t for the handwritten quotes and doctrines painted into the background, some of them might be unrecognizable. Beard is more interested in “visual expressions of the self”, or rather, focusing on his subject’s spirit. Recently, his paintings have explored and expressed the writings of Taoism. Beard found himself drifting away from it in daily life. His new work is an effort to find his way back and capture the everyday inspiration in his readings and travels. He faithfully archives these experiences at his blog. Like looking into an abstract mirror, here are some reflections of Beard’s life to date.

detail

Topics

Akira Beard, Portraiture, Scarface, Taoism, Watercolor

painting, Portraiture, Thomas Clayton

April 9, 2015

Tomas Clayton takes us back 100 years with his nostalgic portraits set in the World War I era. Re-imagining documentary photographs and artifacts from this time period, Clayton creates enigmatic, highly stylized images that zero in on various characters — soldiers, acrobats, actors, and average men and women alike. Influenced by the aesthetics of the 1970s, elements of this period get muddled with his early 20th century imagery, as well. As a result, his oil on masonite works at times become dislodged from a specific time and place, inviting viewers to create narratives of their own.

Carmel Seymour’s Imaginative Watercolors Play with Negative Space

Carmel Seymour, illustration, painting, Watercolor

August 29, 2014

There seems to be a history running through Carmel Seymour’s water colors, but it’s hard to pin down. Somewhere in the hazy but sublime gap between art and illustration, the paintings suspend an alternate reality in the canvas’ mid-air, depicting some hyperreal folklore in a wash of negative space. Seymour’s conceit seems simple enough: she places contemporary figures, such as girls in jeans and sneakers, in some private oasis, perhaps the figures’ dream landscape or perhaps some alien planet. But the landscapes where her figures exist are not so much 'scapes as objects; entities without a before or after. Her water colors are deployed in highly restrained and linear strokes to focus on details, and then exploded to disrupt the hyperrealism and maximize the medium’s atmospheric emphasis. The paintings have no clear beginning or end, but beg the question: what’s the story here?

Nancy Depew’s Sensual Portraits of Nudes Surrounded by Lush Flora

Nancy Depew, painting, Portraiture

December 1, 2014

New Jersey-based artist Nancy Depew's depictions of nature are luxurious and manicured. Her oil paintings combine traditional elements of portraiture, still life and landscape, fusing these genres into harmonious compositions filled with eye candy. Her most recent figure painting series features women reclining into beds of fresh flowers, comfortably resting their heads and bodies on their soft petals as if finding relief at long last. Though Depew's paintings prioritize craftsmanship (nearly every detail appears to be rendered with a sharp focus), she says that her process is a gestural and intuitive exploration of the figure.

Jeff Soto Paints Mystical “Nightgardens” in His Explorative Landscape Series

graffiti, Jeff Soto, Landscape Painting, Pop Surrealism, Watercolor

June 29, 2015

Jeff Soto (HF Vol. 18) celebrated his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles since 2009 on Saturday night with "Nightgardens" at KP Projects/MKG. We recently discussed the exhibition with Soto in our studio visit here, where Soto shared his continued interest in landscapes: "Nightgardens" is an exploration of the magic and mystery in life coupled very loosely with the tradition of landscape painting. For this show I am using the concept of "nighttime" as a symbol of the unknown. I'm working on creating an imaginary world of magic, monsters and daydreams that exists in a different time and place, yet alludes to issues in our chaotic modern world."

New Drippy Surreal Portraits from Akira Beard

Tomas Clayton Mixes Various Time Periods in his Stylized Portraits

Carmel Seymour’s Imaginative Watercolors Play with Negative Space

Nancy Depew’s Sensual Portraits of Nudes Surrounded by Lush Flora

Jeff Soto Paints Mystical “Nightgardens” in His Explorative Landscape Series

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List

Follow us on our social networks

Shop

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List