Simple, beautifully painted blocks of wood… yep, just goes to show that when the paintbrush is in the right hands, totally mundane objects can become absolutely gorgeous works of art! In this case, those hands belong to London based artist Stuart McHarrie. Beautiful muted palettes. Dimensional yet totally flat. Sigh. Love, love, love.

{via Saatchi Art}

I’m sure you’d recognize the work of American artist Kevin Chupik… although this looks nothing like it! This new series titled “Clarity of Youth” {that is currently showing at Brett Wesley Gallery in Las Vegas until November 1}, is a totally different direction for him, and I like it! Here is his artist statement from this new show:

“Upon becoming a parent, one sees the world once again through young eyes. The fascinations of youth surge forward to reassert their rightful place of prominence in our collective memories. Planes, trains and ships reaffirm their imposing silhouttes of substance, as we view them through the gaze of this second youth. Board games and figurines suggest a world of imagined histories unfolding as we orient our now adult vision to the simple perspective plane of a child’s view. In the revisitation of these simple moments, a surpisingly sophisticated connection through time becomes established between the generations of the young and aging. Through a diverse collection of materials and techniques, these paintings, drawings and assemblages seek to pay hommage to the to the legitimacy of these deceptively simple, yet profound moments of play. In doing so, one realizes that there was indeed a ” Clarity of Youth”.

Lovely. And so true… I once spent an entire day as a T-Rex, under the careful direction of my little boy.

Wow. I want to go to there. This is the stunning, large-scale landscape work of Australian artist Kate Shaw. I have no idea how she does this but I LOVE IT! Stunning colors, swirling and glittering textures, and gorgeous negative spaces that make me want to take a swim in a hot pink mountain lake! Kate currently has a show on {that runs until November 1, 2014} at Fehily Contemporary in Melbourne. If you’re there, you really should go and see these beauties in person… and then tell me all about it!

Oh, cool… paintings of vintage motel rooms. Or, orange bedspread clad spaces where grisly deaths occurred. Yep, this series by Amsterdam/New York based artist Airco Caravan, is titled “Crime Scene” – each piece titled for the incident {overdoses, murders, and other creepy situations} that took place in these oh, so 1970s-esque motels… it’s not only the carpet and wallpaper that’s making me shudder.

I wrote about London based artist Charming Baker in 2009, waaaaay back in the very first year of The Jealous Curator. I loved his work then, and I love it now! Holes drilled in wood and painted over, patterns and textures that make me want to wallpaper everything I own, and just a general fantasticness when it comes to subject matter and composition… I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love that bunny with a bad paw.

When the beautiful, striking, black and white paintings of American artist Rebecca Adams showed up in my inbox this weekend, I knew I had Monday’s post! They almost look like photographs, don’t they? That “lighting”… so gorgeous! And once you read her artist bio, it will make even more sense:

Rebecca Adams has a BFA in photography. Her paintings focus on black and white portraiture referencing stylized and graphic photography and film. She transitioned into painting after school, utilizing her skills in photography and lighting to aid in her subject matter.

Well, yeah. Amazing.

Oh. My.

These are packaging illustrations by Romanian artist/illustrator Aitch. I wish that my milk and cookies looked like this… mind you, I’d probably never open them! Instead of holding my honey and flour, these gorgeous watercolors need to be hanging on my wall! That black paint is so rich, and the flat yet dimensional containers are beyond lovely. Sigh… ♥

{found on Pinterest via Chronicle Books}

I suddenly have a major craving for bubblegum. This is the gorgeous abstract work of Melbourne based artist Belinda Marshall. All of her paintings are such cheerful explosions of color, and kind of make me feel like I’m in a candy shop… mmmm, cotton candy, lemon drops, and gum balls, oh my!

{Several of the originals, and prints in various sizes, are available here.}

Oh summer, you’re so dreamy. Fading memories of summers past in the most gorgeous hues of blue! This is a new body of work by one of my favorite artists, Portland based Lisa Golightly. All of these paintings are part of a new show, titled quite appropriately Endless Summer, which opens this Friday {October 3rd, 7-9pm} in the city of endless summer, Los Angeles.

*The show has been organized by Goodeye Gallery, and will be hung at House of Honey {more details here}. You should totally go – not only will all of these amazing originals be there, so will Lisa!

Philadelphia based artist/designer Mirim Seo sent her Special Sashimi project to me last week. For the first two or three pages, I thought “Oh, cute. A book about Sushi” … and then a few pages later, I gasped.

“Special Sashimi is about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. The story topicted in this book is true. Each year Japan fishermen kill around 2,300 dolphins as a form of pest control, which has been accepted as tradition. And the killed dolphins end up in freezers and served sashimi in Japan. Illustrated with hand-sewing and watercolor on fabric. With this book, I hope to spread the true and help stop the senseless killing of the Taiji dolphins.”

Such a sad story, so beautifully told. If you’re interested to learn more, please visit this project on Mirim’s site.