Glasgow Docks, John Atkinson Grimshaw; oil on card, roughly 12 x 20 inches (30 x 50 cm). Link is to Wikimedia Commons, I don’t know the location of the original. SInce the Wikimedia image was sourced from Bonham’s auctions, I would assume it’s in a private collection.
This nicely atmospheric painting by the Victorian era English artist looks detailed and highly finished at first glance, but reveals itself to be quite rough and gesturally rendered on close inspection.
Kathy Ruck is a painter based in Chester County in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Chester County — as the locals will proudly tell you — is “Wyeth County” and Ruck finds inspiration not only in the work of the Wyeth family, but in the countryside in which they also found many of their subjects.
A number of her pieces are dramatically horizontal, even “cinematic” in their aspect ratio, a format that I find appealing and one that is well suited to her subjects.
I particularly enjoy her portrayals of old trees with interesting shapes and lots of character, and her use of texture and value.
Ruck works in watercolor and ocassionally gouache and is a signature member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society.
She is also a member of the “The Studio Group”, a group of women artists who maintain and exhibit in the Howard Pyle Studio, where influential painter, teacher and illustrator Howard Pyle worked and instructed many of America’s most revered illustrators, including N.C. Wyeth.
It was at a gallery opening at the studio that I had a chance to talk with her briefly and where I have seen a number of her originals over time.
Ruck’s website features galleries of originals, smaller works, and prints.
I believe this illustration by turn of the 20th century Danish illustrator Kay (pronounced “kigh”) Neilsen is for a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that included The Twelve Dancing Princesses.
Image sourced from poulwebb.blogspot.com.
Ian Sidaway is an English artist and author or illustrator of numerous books on art instruction.
Working primarily in watercolor, Sidaway portrays the english countryside — and places to which he has traveled — with crisp, clear, naturalistic compositions that have a distinct feeling of atmosphere, time and place.
In his books, he has been covering various techniques and mediums since the 1980s, with 32 titles currently to his name.
His website offers galleries of both recent and older work. In the archive section, you can find a number of paintings from Venice.
You can also find more images of his work on the two blogs lniked on his website, one for painting and one for fine liner ink sketches. Though not recently updated, they both feature additional images of his paintings and sketches.
Along the Canal, Rubens Santoro; oil on canvas; roughly 16 x 13 inches ( 42 x 33 cm). Link is to image page on Wikimedia commons; I don’t know the location of the original.
This view of a Venice canal by Italian artist Rubens Santoro reminds me strongly of similar subjects by Spanish painter Martin Rico.
I don’t know if there was any connection between the two artists. Both were active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, though Rico was about 20 years older.
Both create a naturalistic, light filled evocation of the magically beautiful city, rich with texture and atmosphere.
Rudy Siswanto is an Illustration Craft Lead at Riotgames; which basically means he leads a team of illustrators and concept designers who help craft the look and feel of particular games.
I’m not a gamer, so I don’t recognize the games for which these images were created, but many of them involve animal characters that Siswanto has portrayed in exaggerated, stylish and dramatic fashion.
.jpg){kind=link}