Wisconsin painter Tom Uttech paints representations of the northern woods with a unique style that carries flavors of realism, magic realism and even primitivism (thinking of Henri Rousseau here).

His moody, often dark woodlands sometimes only hint at the presence of animal life, and at other times are teeming with it, skies filled with birds, and mammals in abundance on the ground.

His compositions are often starkly arranged, with angular, geometric trees and logs at counterpoint with rocks and landforms. Light is rarely direct sunlight, but more evocative of late afternoon, early morning, twilight or even night.

Uttech is also a landscape photographer, and some of the galleries that feature his work (I can’t find a dedicated web presence) also showcase his photographs.

When images of paintings are presented on websites in their frames, I often crop the representative images for display on Lines and Colors due to limited space; but in Uttech’s case, the frames, apparently unique and handmade, are often part of the work — some of them including images of animals and other natural forms carved into their surface.

The largest images and broadest selection I’ve found for Uttech’s work are on the site of the Alexandre Gallery (keep going through the thumbnails of the slideshow).

Some of Uttech’s paintings are on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC as part of the exhibition The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, that runs until February 22, 2015.

There is an available collection of his work: Maganetic North: The Landscapes of Tom Uttech.

Ruta Korshunova is a painter living near Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

Amid the turmoil and uncertainty of life in Ukraine during the border conflict with the Russian Federation, Korshunova finds the presence of mind to paint quiet, contemplative still life; bringing to her commonplace objects a sense of timelessness.

Korshunova was at one point working as a designer and digital artist, but an illness that kept her in bed for long periods sent her back to her early love of painting.

You can find examples of her other work on her Behance page, and more on her painting, including larger images, on her blog.

In addition to her still life subjects, Korshunova also does occasional portraits, including the one above, second from bottom, of her Husband, painter Innokenty Korshunov, who I will feature in a subsequent post.

According to her website, Ruta Korshunova can be contacted by email for sales of her work, commissions and gallery inquires from countries outside the Ukraine.

[Suggestion courtesy of ETat]