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Vibrant Pastel Portraits by Barnaby Whitfield

Barnaby Whitfield's portraits are rendered with acidic shades of chalk pastel as if illuminated by a strange, disorienting light source. His characters' pallid skin glows with an almost fluorescent shade of white and the wrinkles, bruises, and redness on their faces is especially accentuated. Their vulnerability manifests in the form of physical scars.

Barnaby Whitfield’s portraits are rendered with acidic shades of chalk pastel as if illuminated by a strange, disorienting light source. His characters’ pallid skin glows with an almost fluorescent shade of white and the wrinkles, bruises, and redness on their faces is especially accentuated. Their vulnerability manifests in the form of physical scars.

Whitfield’s men and women appear emotionally exhausted and sometimes even tearful — a detail that doesn’t become readily apparent amid his festive use of neon colors. His bright drawings weave emotion into their surreal, visual splendor. Whitfield’s work will be on view at Gallery Poulsen’s booth at PULSE Contemporary Art Fair this week (December 4-7) in Miami. Stay tuned for coverage of Art Basel week festivities in the coming days.

Topics

Barnaby Whitfield, drawing, pastel

Alessandro Ripane, digital art, drawing, illustration

September 10, 2014

All that should look solid melts right off in the compositions of Alessandro Ripane. Many of his characters have a mass of dripping liquid with plants protruding in all directions in lieu of real faces. Other figures sprout plants from their limbs while their gleaming white bones peek through. Yet these morbid compositions manage to keep a whimsical twist; in some, giant pink ice cream cones drip heavily. Genoa-born Ripane remembers collecting comic books and volumes on wild animals, a habit that definitely informs his strange imagery. Each vignette gives the sensation that the viewer is walking in on the strange characters. A couple cuddling becomes a strange mass of plants, melting parts and mangled flesh. But not all is lost: Ripane makes sure to let one of the figures keep his socks and shoes on. Part Surrealism, part satire and all visceral, Ripane's works leave few parts intact but offer plenty of visual gems.

Andrea Wan’s Imaginative Illustrations Provide Social Commentary

Andrea Wan, drawing, Exploding Heads, Fakelore, illustration

May 26, 2014

Born in Hong Kong, raised in Vancouver, educated in Denmark, and currently residing in Berlin – Andrea Wan is an artist with a diverse and culturally rich background to draw upon. Inspired by her relationships with the various people and places she has encountered throughout her journeys, Wan’s illustrations and ink paintings seek to communicate narratives that seem influenced by folktales and children’s stories. Indeed, the surrealistic and whimsical scenes that Wan creates could be illustrations straight out of a trippy children’s book, à la Dr. Seuss, Lewis Carroll or Shel Siverstein.

Amandine Urruty’s Whimsical Drawings of Bizarre Characters

Amandine Urruty, drawing

December 15, 2014

French artist Amandine Urruty's busy graphite drawings overflow with humorous characters. Dog-faced people, sausages painting at easels, floating teeth, and tiny bed sheet ghosts run amuck in her whimsical worlds. One can spend a long time gazing at her drawings and examining each oddball creature. Though the artist's typical work is monochromatic and small-scale, she recently tried her hand at a large, colorful mural in Zaragoza, Spain. Take a look at some of her recent work below.

Samantha Wall Explores Race in “Let Your Eyes Adjust to the Dark”

drawing, Portraiture, race, Rorschach inkblot test, Samatha Wall

September 30, 2015

Korean born artist Samantha Wall's black and white works explore the complexities of race, particularly her own multi-raciality’ between living in Korea and now the United States. First featured on our blog, Wall primarily works in graphite and charcoal to create detailed and conceptual drawings. For her upcoming exhibit at Roq la Rue gallery in Seattle, "Let Your Eyes Adjust to the Dark", Wall created new works using sumi ink and dried pigments to achieve a haunting style of expressionism.

Vibrant Pastel Portraits by Barnaby Whitfield

Alessandro Ripane’s Humorously Grotesque Illustrations

Andrea Wan’s Imaginative Illustrations Provide Social Commentary

Amandine Urruty’s Whimsical Drawings of Bizarre Characters

Samantha Wall Explores Race in “Let Your Eyes Adjust to the Dark”

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