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Stephen Mackey’s Whimsical Classically-Inspired Paintings

British artist Stephen Mackey portrays whimsical scenes in his 17th and 19th century inspired oil paintings. In fantasy settings reminiscent of the past, Mackey paints kittens posed for upper class portraits, skeletons wooing young brides, and animals hosting Mad Hatter tea parties, while the moon watches over, smiling with her perfect cupid's bow and rouged blush of a 1920s film star.

British artist Stephen Mackey portrays whimsical scenes in his 17th and 19th century inspired oil paintings. In fantasy settings reminiscent of the past, Mackey paints kittens posed for upper class portraits, skeletons wooing young brides, and animals hosting Mad Hatter tea parties, while the moon watches over, smiling with her perfect cupid’s bow and rouged blush of a 1920s film star. His works also recall those of Dutch painters like Johannes Vermeer and French Neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whom he counts among his favorite artists. Mackey’s well-mannered subjects are rendered with such realistic detail and atmosphere, that it is as if he painted them from life and not his imagination. He has said that he paints with the goal of creating something that looks like he found it, rather than executed.

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