Bikes and Barcelona… sigh. These gorgeous oil paintings, by Spanish artist Marc Figueras, make me want to pack my sandals, fly to Barcelona, and find the closest bike rental ASAP. Ok, I have to admit how I found this work. I was about to pin that top-most image to my “wanna wear it” board on Pinterest… until I realized it was a PAINTING! Mind you, I still want that skirt.

So. Many. Dots. Yep, lots and lots and lots of tiny little dots of acrylic paint. Acrylic paint! All of these pieces are part of a show, titled Splash, that opens later this week in New York… if you can go, GO. This is the art meets technology work of Miami based artist William Betts. I don’t fully understand his process, but I do understand that I’d love to jump in a pool/go to the beach this very minute. Beautiful.

What!? Rachel Castle? Yep! I managed to get Sydney based artist, designer, entrepreneur, lover of wiener dogs… Rachel Castle to come on the podcast. I was so excited about this because Rachel has always been a bit of a creative enigma to me. She does so much, her work is so popular, and honestly I’m kind of intimidated by her success… success that has always seemed effortless from where I’m standing. I wanted to look behind the curtain, and I did! Turns out, she’s just a normal person. Who knew?! We cover everything from our favorite TV shows to her career in PR, over to dirty words in Australia that mean something completely different in Canada… and we did all of this from her car. For real. You can listen on the player right up there, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

First up, a few of her paintings {clearly you can see I like her floral pieces}:

Ahhh! So gorgeous! These beauties sell so fast… in fact I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them without a SOLD sign underneath. Next up, you can’t talk to Rachel Castle without asking her about her felt text pieces:

Yes! From KISS to Wham to a whole bunch of bananas in between … and yes, during the speed round I asked her preference between marmite and vegemite. Vegemite, obvi. Ok, and then of course there’s everything else she does outside of the paintings and felt pieces. Bedding, pillows, towels, sculptures, tea towels, bags, sweatshirts and more. Here’s just a teeny peek:

Great, right? And yes, she clearly has a background in branding and marketing because, whoa, everything on her site looks FABULOUS!

Speaking of fabulous, here’s a look into her beautiful, messy, colorful studio {most of these photos came from her lovely instagram feed}:

Yep. Love it. And thanks to her new-ish studio out of her house, her family won’t get stuck with pins that got left behind in the couch… hopefully.

So, sweet song lyrics and romantic sayings are great… but I have to admit, I kind of like the slightly ruder ones, as does Rachel:

Turns out, not everyone agrees… not one “DOUCHE” print sold. Shame, I think it’s hilarious! And then in the speed round I just had to ask… did she have a wiener dog that looks just like mine? Yep! Granted, she calls hers a “sausage dog”, because, Australia:

So cute! Oh, and that DAMN sweatshirt… yeah, we didn’t actually talk about that, I just really want it. That’s all.

Ok, and that’s that! Thanks so much to Rachel for talking to me for an hour in a very hot car, thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the episode, and thanks to you for listening! There will be more art for your ear next weekend! xo

Other Links:

1. Lucas Grogan
2. Wayne White
3. Roots

Portraits and plants. Ahh, two of my favorite things merged together beautifully by Puerto Rican born, Brooklyn based photographer Mariángel Catalina. This series, “Me Matas” is filled with both men and women living in their “urban gardens”, but as usual, it was the women’s portraits that called my name… I made sure to keep “albahaca morada (ocimum tenuiflorum): javier” in there as bearded proof that she does in fact photograph men as well! Happy Friday.

*all portraits and plants are photographed by Mariángel.

I have written about American artist Amy Santoferraro a few times over the last few years… and here we are again! This is Amy’s found object series, titled “BB Baskets”. I love the objects themselves – juicy little jewels in forgotten ceramic baskets – but when I read how these beauties came to be, well I just had to share:

“My home is across a valley from Fort Riley, Kansas. The Kansas landscape mimics that of Afghanistan and Iraq in color and flatness, making it an ideal training ground for soldiers at the Army base before they head off to war. Everyday I hear and feel the rounds of firing and bombing practice while watching the neighborhood kids shoot each other with BB guns in the convenient overgrown bush hides of my yard. It is quite possibly the most surreal thing I have ever repeatedly experienced.

I started collecting the BBs the kids left in the yard without any clear direction other than picking up and collecting the beautiful balls of color. The collection grew as the days passed, and I gradually began seeing them as material. I love that they can be so many things and don’t readily volunteer their origin story. It’s not essential to appreciate the resulting object and in no way is a statement about war or only a personal narrative.

Sometimes the balls are just balls. But they are also bubbles, fruit, wishes, vomit, bubbling crud, excuses. . . pretty much anything that can build up to be overwhelming, disgusting and/or beautiful. The found baskets in this series fulfill my need to collect evidence of ceramics doing what it does best: masquerading as other objects and materials. One thing mimicking another due to nostalgia or sentiment rather than function or design, or skeuomorphism, is a huge part of my work and practice. I like to think of it as “materials behaving badly.” The materials or objects at home depot, the thrift store, or in my studio are kinda like Girls Gone Wild: they reveal too much, are too fake and are too cheap.”

So. Good.

Oil paintings ~ with a glitch ~ a beautiful, dreamy glitch. These rich paintings are the work of Swiss artist Andy Denzler. I would love to see him work. Could you imagine witnessing the moment when he creates the “glitch”? Wiping across that beautifully painted portrait? Gah! I don’t know if I could watch.

LOVE!!! This series, titled “Books”, is the hilarious and beautifully painted work of Australian artist/illustrator Anna Hoyle. Gouache, kittens, and Leda’s nasty slippers… I literally could not be more smitten than I am at this very moment.

Ah, I love a good zine! I’ve written about New York based artist/illustrator Aimee Bee Brooks before, but when I saw this sweet little zine, titled “Color Theory”, well… here we are! I think the blue page is my favorite… or green… or maybe orange. Sigh. Did I mention I started a club in the sixth grade called “The Rainbow Girls”. Yeah, I totally did.

Astronauts, dinosaurs, Hello Kitty, and even a pegasus thrown in for good measure. Yes, it is safe to say I absolutely love the gorgeous work {oil paintings!?} of Boston based artist Scott Listfield. I wrote about him for the first time in 2010, so it’s about time we finally talk. Well, it turns out he’s not only insanely talented, he’s also really funny and I’m pretty sure we’re on our way to being BFFs. You can listen right up there under that very stuck Hello Kitty balloon, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

As usual, let’s kick things off with a few of my favorites from Scott’s portfolio – yep, there are quite a few:

Oh. So. Good. You can definitely see his years of being a designer in there! Here are a few of his more recent pieces… and yep, they have astronauts in them too! In fact, he hasn’t done a painting in the last 15 years that doesn’t have a silver-suited space man in there somewhere. Why mess with brilliance!?

I love the work, and I love the story behind it {ie listen to the episode!}

Ok, next. Scott might kill me for posting this, but here is one of his first astronaut / dinosaur paintings. It was done in 2000, aka Y2K… remember that? When everyone was scared about what might happen when the clock ticked over from 1999 to 2000:

Sixteen years ago! Well, his subject matter may not have changed, but boy oh boy, his style / technique certainly has evolved. Speaking of evolution, let’s talk about his pal “dinosaur”. This hilarious gem came up during the speed round:

Yep. When his wife was his girlfriend, she gave Scott this little t-rex for his birthday… a little t-rex who ended up traveling the world! If you want to see everywhere that “dinosaur” went, before his arm fell off and he was retired to the shelf, check out the map right here.

And finally, I thought these three images were the perfect way to wrap things up:

The future, Scott in a secret hideout, and a Pizza Hut pegasus. The only thing that would have made this better… pie. Hm, I wonder if I could convince Scott to do a painting with an astronaut and a coconut cream pie? A girl can dream.

Thank you so much to Scott for sharing his story {and making me laugh for an hour}, thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the episode, and big thanks to you for listening. There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

I would happily live in one of these paintings… I’ll take one with a pool. This is the gorgeous work of London based artist Charlotte Keates. Her statement says it all, so I’ll let Charlotte take it from here:

“I am particularly interested in the dialogue between architecture and nature. Ever-inspired by the 1960’s and 70’s classical architectural interiors, I aim to create intriguing and surprisingly illusionary interiors. These spaces convey a sense of stillness, a peaceful and calm location of contemplation – a space to think. Particular experiences and observations forge the main architectural structures, angles and objects in my paintings, where I aim to portray the beauty achieved through geometric simplicity.

The outdoors spills through a window or door, location or setting. Pots and plants teeter on the edge of a table whilst trees grow convincingly from rooftops and pillars are cut off abruptly, hovering slightly above ground level. The interiors are minimally furnished with large glass open spaces, leaving it exposed to the vulnerability of the outside world that encroaches upon us. The landscape has no boundaries; we are unable to control and confine it, forcing the inside out and the outside in.”

Sigh. Lovely.

{ps. She has a show opening next Thursday, June 2, at Arusha Gallery in Edinburgh.}