Alana Dee Haynes

Alana - who calls herself Dee - combines photography with drawing, creating beautiful images. The majority of Dee's work concentrates on human flesh, and she adds her personal touches through drawing, almost like tattoos, to the print. The effect is really quite impressive.

Check out more of Dee's artwork

Picasso's Blue Period

In the spring of 1901, Picasso learnt about the suicide of friend and fellow painter Carlos Casagemas, and fell into deep depression. These blue paintings are a representation of Picasso's melancholy and sombre mood throughout the years 1901-4, his mood dominating his paintings. Picasso's Blue Period was followed in 1904 by his Rose Period, when his mood improved and this reflected in the pink, red tones of his paintings.

La Vie (1903)

Casagemas in his Coffin (1901)

Portrait of Jamie Sabartes (1901)

The Old Guitarist (1903)

The Rose Period (The Actor - 1901)

Can paintings be too famous to see?

Will Gompertz investigates in this blog piece whether a painting can be too famous or not to see. Do the backgrounds of famous artworks, such as the famous Mona Lisa, cloud our true opinions of the artwork itself...very Walter Benjamin-esque.

Will's article

May be worth reading Walter Benjamin too, it's long but it's interesting. To summarise his work, Benjamin asserts that reproduction of artwork destroys the authenticity or 'aura' of the original. By bringing the artwork closer to us with film and pictures, our opinion of the artwork is decided by the reproduction instead of the original, destroying the true reason it was created.

Walter Benjamin - In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935)

Alyssa Monks

Alyssa Monks is a realist painter from New Jersey. She has studied art in Florence, Italy and New York City, USA, as well as also teaching in New York. Monks uses natural filters such as glass, water and steam to distort the shapes of the body in her paintings. Her most recent artworks involve painting the figure behind a shower screen, the steam distorting the body. Her works are extremely detailed and exact, heres a statement from Monks:

"When I began painting the human body, I was obsessed with it and needed to create as much realism as possible. I chased realism until it began to unravel and deconstruct itself,” Alyssa states, “I am exploring the possibility and potential where representational painting and abstraction meet - if both can coexist in the same moment."

Check Alyssa's website for more!

Jenny Mörtsell

Jenny Mörtsell is an illustrator who has a large fan following online. She draws portraits using pencil mostly but often experiments with paint too. 

Jenny sent me a statement about herself and her artwork:

'I am a Swedish girl living in Brooklyn. I have always been drawing and I think I always will. My favourite motif is girls with messy hair that doesn't smile just because somebody tells them they look prettier that way. I also take a lot of photos! You can see them at www.jennysphotofolio.com'

Here's a small collection of her work:

For more drawings go on:

www.jennysportfolio.com

Painting monkey!

I won't be able to post tomorrow because I'll be in London all day, unless I see any Art and About - but for you all here is a video of a painting monkey!

Diem Chau

An alphabet of animals carved from crayons by Diem Chau

Diem Chau is from Vietnam but went to America with her family as refugees in 1986. She is famous for creating figures out of crayons and pencils, carefully sculpting with tiny detail.

Pantone Pairings

Couple of years back I did work experience at an advertising company for a few weeks and I was completely amazed at the fact that a company could own a colour so that no other company could use it. Still confused at how an organisation could own a colour, but the company that has made this possible is Pantone. I worked with RBS for a short period of time and they had bought a deep navy from Pantone (if you go on their website it's plastered all over it), for the life of me I can't remember what Pantone number it was but I remember my supervisor telling me that no one else could use that colour in marketing because RBS owned it.Puzzling.

Anyway, artist David Schwen from Minneapolis, who is also a very reputable designer who has worked with the likes of Fox, GQ, Harley Davidson and Nestle, has played with the idea of Pantone and has created a series of 'Pantone Pairings'. Essentially, I think Pantone works by  pairing colours which work well together and then selling that, Schwen has placed together foods which are usually put together and photographed them as Pantone colours. The result is quite comical and really successful. Enjoy.

Check out more of David's work here

Swooshart

The mind behind art blog 'swooshart' has paired the great sportswear giant, Nike, with classical art. Combining their famous 'swoosh' tick with works from genius artists such as Caravaggio, Van Gogh, Michaelangelo and many more. 

I find the tick works with some artworks more than others, for example, the image with a woman and two children walking beside her heading straight toward the viewer, who is looking slightly up toward her. The tick is powerful and reinstates Nike's brand well. Other paintings the tick sits uncomfortably in the image, most notably the paintings which do not express power or strength. For example, the painting below where the swoosh seems to be just an awkward addition to a sombre and melancholy image. 

One of the paintings I feel the tick works most strongly with

swooshart.tumblr.com