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Miriam Escofet’s Esoteric Paintings of Idyllic Worlds

Miriam Escofet creates rich oil paintings of idyllic scenes that nostalgically allude to classical antiquity. Perhaps the only notes of pessimism in these sumptuous depictions of ornate architecture, statues and jewels is that Escofet's heavenly world seem to be nearly devoid of human inhabitants. This is a place that seems to belong to the gods — too perfect for mortals. Escofet originally studied 3D design and set out to be a ceramicist, which explains her attention to texture and volume. Each crease of fabric and crevice within a tree's bark is rendered with precision. Light and shadow are greatly contrasted to a level beyond what we normally experience with the human eye, making Escofet's fictional lands seem vivid yet illusory.

Miriam Escofet creates rich oil paintings of idyllic scenes that nostalgically allude to classical antiquity. Perhaps the only notes of pessimism in these sumptuous depictions of ornate architecture, statues and jewels is that Escofet’s heavenly world seem to be nearly devoid of human inhabitants. This is a place that seems to belong to the gods — too perfect for mortals. Escofet originally studied 3D design and set out to be a ceramicist, which explains her attention to texture and volume. Each crease of fabric and crevice within a tree’s bark is rendered with precision. Light and shadow are greatly contrasted to a level beyond what we normally experience with the human eye, making Escofet’s fictional lands seem vivid yet illusory.

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Miriam Escofet, painting

f. scott hess, painting

May 21, 2014

F. Scott Hess's oil paintings balance time-honored compositional techniques with a bright, saturated color palette and elements of kitsch. He directly translates the cultural symbols of American suburbia — country club dads, manicured lawns — into modern-day history paintings. Like the 18th and 19th-century depictions of great battles, his oil paintings feature multitudes of characters sprawled out across a single canvas, each person involved in his or her own activity and reacting to the situation at hand in different ways. At times, Hess plays with perspective, warping the scene as if it was distorted by a fish-eye lens or a botched panoramic photo on an iPhone. The results give viewers a chance to be voyeurs in situations that were once mundane but have become far-removed and strange.

Shiki Taira’s Phantom-Filled Paintings

mineral pigment, painting, Shiki Taira

December 24, 2018

Often inserting phantom characters in her paintings, Shiki Taira crafts mineral pigment works on silk that mix classical Japanese painting with contemporary sensibilities. These creatures seem to coexist with the subjects in this work, providing more lighthearted fare than terror.

Joshua Hagler’s Layered, Deconstructionist Paintings

figurative, Joshua Hagler, painting

July 11, 2018

Using stills from early propaganda films or frontier paintings as a basis, the layered paintings of Joshua Hagler deconstruct our history. Each work goes through several iterations, distorting and removing previous layers to arrive at something new entirely. The explorations become both visceral and introspective in this process.

Studio Visit: Behind the Scenes of Mike Davis’s “A Blind Man’s Journey”

111 Minna, A Blind Man's Journey, Mike Davis, painting

September 29, 2014

A self-described history nerd, Mike Davis is a San Francisco-based artist who paints scenes stuck in another time. His detailed oil paintings are rife with personal symbolism and minuscule narratives, evoking Renaissance painters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Aertsen. Though he emulates the Northern Renaissance masters, Davis is entirely self-taught. He forayed into painting in his early twenties as an off-shoot of his tattoo career. The founding owner of esteemed San Francisco shop Everlasting Tattoo, Davis currently splits his time between his craft and his fine art, using his paintings as a cathartic processing tool to digest the events of his personal life.

Miriam Escofet’s Esoteric Paintings of Idyllic Worlds

F. Scott Hess’s Voyeuristic Paintings of Suburbia

Shiki Taira’s Phantom-Filled Paintings

Joshua Hagler’s Layered, Deconstructionist Paintings

Studio Visit: Behind the Scenes of Mike Davis’s “A Blind Man’s Journey”

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