Stunning art that looks like photos

[Loki]

Stunning art that looks like photos



At first glance, these images look like intimate snapshots caught by the camera at exactly the right time.

But these touching water scenes were not captured by a photographer but painted by hand.

Putting paintbrush to canvas, artist Alyssa Monks pays mind-boggling attention to detail to create them.

The 31-year-old, who insists no spec*ial tools are used, said: 'It is all about the desire to try to create an image of a person that is realer than real, beyond what even a photograph can portray.

I think it is often my willingness to let go of my own expectations that lets me capture the interesting surprises about the face and body.'

Ms Monks takes about 1,000 photos for a small series of paintings, using the images to play with the colour and get the paintings as real as possible.

The New York artist, who admires Jackson Pollock, is now experimenting with distorted figures pressed against glass in her work.

[Loki]

Who said that all modern art is decadent? IMO this artist is more talented than Da Vinci.

[Fortis in Arduis]

We should go to the BP Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery before it closes on Monday 21st:

http://www.npg.org.uk/bp-portrait-aw...ize_position=2

This tempera painting took two years yet is smaller than life size at only 27 x 21 cm:

The Second Prize was awarded to Michael Gaskell for Tom.
270 x 210 mm
Michael Gaskell lives in Sheffield and won Second Prize in the BP Portrait Award previously in 2003 and was commended in both 2001 and 1999. He studied at St Helen’s College of Art and Design and Coventry Polytechnic and has been exhibiting his work for over twenty years. The shortlisted portrait is of his son, Tom, who was 17 at the time of the first sitting. ‘He was at the period in adolescence between boy and manhood and fleetingly suspended between both.’ Gaskell continued to work on the portrait over the next two years. ‘In spirit my painting owes most to Botticelli’s Portrait of a Young Man which is its primary inspiration and a painting I’ve always loved. The pose itself is more reminiscent of a number of portraits by Holbein, an artist I greatly admire.’

This I found equally impressive:

The BP Young Artist Award 2009 is Mark Jameson for Benfica Blue.
1220 x 762 mm
Mark Jameson, 29, painted his award winning portrait of his sister, Lyndsey, in less than a month. The sittings took place at his parent’s house in County Durham. He says, ‘It was my intention to capture aspects of the subject’s persona, but also to convey this in a modern and relevant way. That said the acrid colours and an informal composition contribute to an accessible and honest account. This piece is not to my mind entirely finished. I hope that perhaps its technical shortcomings are in keeping with the character of the piece.’ Since graduating from Sunderland University with a degree in Fine Art in 2003, Jameson has acquired a handful of commissions through local art dealers and hopes to be able to become a full time artist in the future.

To my mind, this painting was more than finished, and it is pretty huge as well.