Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Alice Lin’s Melancholy Drawings Evoke Storybook Illustrations

Beijing-based painter and illustrator Alice Lin creates nostalgic, whimsical works on paper. The world she develops evokes Victorian-era storybook illustrations with its lush, ornate flora as a recurring decorative motif, but the artist's imagery is far more contemplative and melancholic. Using watercolor and natural mineral pigment, she envelopes her characters in a marbled texture with wisps of gradients that seem to float though her scenes like fog. As viewers, we come upon her characters in moments of contemplation, staring with downcast eyes or obscuring their faces from our gaze.

Beijing-based painter and illustrator Alice Lin creates nostalgic, whimsical works on paper. The world she develops evokes Victorian-era storybook illustrations with its lush, ornate flora as a recurring decorative motif, but the artist’s imagery is far more contemplative and melancholic. Using watercolor and natural mineral pigment, she envelopes her characters in a marbled texture with wisps of gradients that seem to float though her scenes like fog. As viewers, we come upon her characters in moments of contemplation, staring with downcast eyes or obscuring their faces from our gaze.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Nick Runge, a Los Angeles-based artist, crafts dreamlike and moody paintings of mysterious figures and scenes. Though these works carry flashes of realism, these works carry abstractions that either push backdrops into otherworldly territory or interfere with the subject itself.
Sasaku Kusuriyubi’s wild characters and scenes carry both joyful and otherworldly qualities. The artist, garnering praise on social media from the likes of James Jean and Yu Maeda, seems to take influence from both anime, mythology, and a broader pop sensibility.
Carlos Mendes, who works under the name CIAS, is a painter and tattoo artist with a penchant toward ancient art history. He shared some of his recent work that blends these worlds in the show "Indelible" at Espaco Exibicionista Gallery. Mendes is based in Lisbon, Portugal.
Jim Shaw's paintings are striking fusions of pop culture, political histories, and found, scenic backdrops. The artist's varied approach has evolved over decades, with his recent work working with acrylics layered on muslin. Some of the works implement "theatrical scenic backdrops" purchased by Shaw, combining canvases from the 1940s and 1950s and his own style.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List