Lines and Colors art blog

Sam Vokey
Boston based painter Sam Vokey paints still life, landscapes and portraits in a crisp, clear, realist style.

Though the surface of his paintings often looks refined, he never crosses over into the stiffness of photorealism, and maintains a painterly edge.

His palette ranges from muted to bright as the subject warrants. His still life paintings, in particular, have a wonderful quality of calm contemplation and careful observation. Vokey will often rearrange the same simple still life subjects into different, fresh compositions, playing with reflections and highlights in reflective objects.

I also admire the elegant simplicity of his handling of water in his landscapes. In those, as well as in his still life paintings, Vokey plays with value, at times choosing strong contrasts and at other times narrowing the value range to beautifully restrained effect.

On his website you will find several categories of paintings and prints, including portraits. Some of those combine elements of room interiors as well.

Vokey occasionally leads workshops, though it doesn’t look as though the page for those has been recently updated.

There are step-through demos of two still life paintings here.

[Via Jeffrey Hayes]