Cowboys, cafes and drugs ~ there’s got to be a story in there somewhere.

I’m not sure if I’m more jealous of these oil paintings by Drew Deane or the many inspiration gathering road trips she’s obviously been on. These amazing signs remind me that I still haven’t lived out a life long dream of driving across the southern states in an old gold convertible… I know, I know, how very Thelma & Louise of me.

I must have beef on the brain, much like the guy in the image above. After my last post featuring Ilana Kohn’s steaks I ended up finding these pieces by Christian Northeast. I found the top most image first, and then as I made my way through Christian’s portfolio I found the other two. I thought they told quite a nice little story when shown together… and now I’m hungry, but also slightly grossed out. Maybe I’ll just have an apple.

Hunks of meat, a puppet show and Christmas jeers… how can you not be jealous of this work by illustrator Ilana Kohn? I chose these three from her portfolio because I love the grey scale, quite detailed faces against the flat colours & shapes that surround them… and to be honest, and not artsy at all, I really really really like those big chunks of steak.

I’ve been charmed by Charming Baker. Ok, not a very original joke, but it’s true!

I had just planned on showing the first painting of the school group… but then I found the one with the horse… and then the one with holes drilled into it. I could have kept going too, but I stopped myself before it spun out of control. And that’s when I realized that I had in fact been charmed.

When I first saw these soft, yet striking, pieces by Melissa Doherty I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at. Is it sculpture? Photographs of tiny models? Nope, they’re paintings. Oil on canvas. Amazing! Now in my defense, Melissa does say that she thinks ‘of each painting more as a still life, construction, or model, and a metaphor for comfort, desire, protection, isolation and facade’… so at least my model theory wasn’t that far off!

{This artist was brought to my attention by Eric Cator, another fabulous painter that I wrote about in July. His blog is called paintblog and features lots & lots of painters that would make anyone jealous!}

Painting people is difficult enough, but put them underwater and then paint them… that’s a whole new story! Samantha French has a huge portfolio full of swimmers both above and below water. I love these paintings for their serene subject matter, gorgeous colour palette, and loose but very confident brushwork. I’d love to hang these three together in my summer beach home… but I don’t have a summer beach home, so until then I’ll just admire them here.

Sun-bleached & suburban. Muted & mundane.

No matter how you describe it, Irish artist Mairead O’hEocha has put together one of my favourite combos. And the cherry on the top? An old ice cream sign. Sigh. Jealous & inspired.

Hitler and Britney Spears as children… and these were only two out of dozens on Annie Kevans‘ site. She has two main series, Boys and Girls. The Boys series focuses on dictators when they were children, and the Girls series is about ‘the commodification of female child stars from Shirley Temple to Britney Spears.’ There’s something very innocent, and a bit haunting, that you can’t help but be affected by. It really is strange to stop and think about Hitler being a little boy.

As if the weird sasquatch wasn’t enough, Mary Kate McDevitt had to add a few ‘little winged potatoes’ just to make me really wish I’d come up with this. Ok, so now I’m totally inspired to do my next painting on an old chunk of tree… where’d I put that saw…

{Oh, and I also really love this little chair.}

I was just clicking around on YouTube today, as you do on a lazy Sunday morning, and I came across this video of Margaret Kilgallen talking about her work. I have been a fan of Margaret’s work for years and wrote about her last February. Sadly, Margaret died in 2001 at the very young age of 33, and until today’s video I had only seen the odd photo of her. It was fantastic to see her painting, and talking about her process. Her philosophies around work done by hand are so inspiring. I’m not going to beat myself up for an imperfect line ever again! Thanks Margaret… wherever you are.