Contemporary Surrealistic Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (support base). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous.

-via Wikipedia

Painting is one of the most versatile mediums in visual art. It is also a highly personal medium. Painting styles are as varied and idiosyncratic as the artists themselves.

And so it is with surrealistic painting.

Contemporary surrealistic painting ranges from the nearly photographic dreamscapes of Jacek Yerka and Mark Ryden, to the abstract surrealism of Mohammad Zaza, from scribbles on linen to highly detailed horror artists like HR Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, to visionary artists like Alex Grey and Rudolf Hausner attempting to visualize the spiritual world or religious experience.

James McCarthy

Last Modified October 13, 2019 Leave a Comment

James McCarthy is a surrealistic landscape painter. McCarthy’s psychedelic/cosmic mindscapes wrestle with the concepts of space-time and the afterlife.

Across the Event Horizon - Oil on canvas. 18x24

Along the Frozen Lake - Oil on canvas. 18x24

Dawn in the Garden of Creation - Oil on canvas. 22x28

KODAK Digital Still Camera

In the Court of the Crimson King - Oil on canvas. 20x30

Luminous Energy Harvesters II - Oil on canvas. 22x28

Shadow Box and Surroundings - Oil on canvas. 18x24

The Garden in the Valley of the Stars - Oil on canvas. 22x30

The Tower on the Edge of Infinity - Oil on canvas. 18x24

Artist’s Statement

I’m a surrealist but I also consider myself a landscape painter.

I like to paint biomorphic forms but I’m also interested in capturing the moods of various landscapes.

I like to depict the weather and the seasons – the seasons especially because seasons note the passing of time.

Winter has a special meaning for me as well. It represents solitude and wonder.

Much of my work is inspired by ‘mindscape’ music such as New Age, psychedelic, certain classical pieces, prog rock and medieval music.

As I grow older I’ve become increasingly more intrigued by what life’s Final Door has in store for us. Is it a doorway to eternity or oblivion?

James McCarthy on DeviantArt
James McCarthy on Facebook

Konan Lim

Last Modified October 6, 2019 Leave a Comment

About Konan Lim

Konan Lim is a Dubai-based Filipino artist. Lim was born and raised in the Philippines and discovered his passion for art at a young age. During his childhood, Lim won numerous art competitions. In 2005 he received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture at Western Mindanao State University, Zamboanga City, Philippines.

In 2007 he moved to Dubai to work as an Architect while still pursuing painting. From 2012 he participated in several local exhibitions to international shows. He has been commissioned in mural art events & collaborated with several artists.

Lim whimsically portrays childhood nostalgia through his representational paintings. The works play on the boundaries of playfulness and cuteness-overload but with something strange ominous permeating the atmosphere. Each work is exquisitely rendered and painterly: Lim’s craftmanship is surpassed only by his own strange imagination.

Lim’s images juxtapose conflicting emotions into a unified narrative: suggesting something strangely distorted and through-the-looking-glass about childhood memory in his compelling, surrealistic images.

konanlim.com

Stephen Gibb

Last Modified August 18, 2019 Leave a Comment

Artist Statement

I imagine a world where the visually rich language of fairy tales and nursery rhymes extends into adulthood. The traditional nature of this kind storytelling is best presented with visual aids; simple, straightforward text accompanied by fantastic illustrations. In our culture, this is a conventional part of our collective upbringing and experience. These stories often convey lessons, which are coded in familiar, symbolic language, and are likely where we first encounter metaphor and allegory.

We carry these symbolic codes into adulthood—like wolf equals bad, pig equals good. The narratives I deliver in my paintings utilize this common trove of visual references; however with more mature and timely messages.

The intertwined relationship between language and image has always guided me in constructing my artwork—using visual puns, symbolic themes and literal translations from words into paintings. Often the compositions and assemblies of characters seem to clash in a surreal incongruence, but on some level, they relate by a verbal association or some idiomatic commonality. My aim is to exploit these visual conventions and present something visually arousing with dynamic color and compelling content.

The level of “payoff” sophistication that the viewer “gets” from the paintings is relative to their own personal experience and history. There may be universal themes revealed, and there may be idiosyncratic dead ends. There is no correct reading of the images other than what the viewer extracts on their own. Even my opinion and the depth of what they mean to me may change from day to day.

Biography

Stephen Gibb lives and works in the small town of Amherstburg, in southern Ontario, Canada and maintains a second studio in Windsor. He earned a B.F.A. in visual arts from the University of Windsor and is currently represented by the St. Germain gallery in Toronto. Among the cities he has exhibited in are San Diego, Sacramento, and Hollywood— the hotbed of California’s Lowbrow and Pop Surrealism community. His work is collected around the globe and has gained widening interest since working on the album art for hip hop artist Trippie Redd.

Links:

facebook.com/bubblegumsurrealism/
instagram.com/stephengibbart/
stephengibb.com/gallery/

Nam Das

Last Modified August 15, 2019 Leave a Comment

Nam Das (b.1989) creates visual stories by arranging figurative elements like an assemblage forming a central idea. An idea which plays around the different archetypes of the collective unconscious or mythologems observed throughout history.

He began to work as a full-time painter at the start of 2019.

Sites:

https://hnamdas.wixsite.com/paintings
https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/1229023
https://www.instagram.com/thenamdas/

Allen Linder

Last Modified August 13, 2019 Leave a Comment

Artist Statement

Whether creating sculptures or paintings, it is a desire to fall deeper and deeper into my imagination that compels me. A desire to be surprised to discover what I am actually dwelling upon in the often obscured parts of my being. I like to strip away at what arises in my vision until it makes a kind of complete sense although I may not understand it quite yet. I work until the image somehow resonates with my life and speaks of something that I actually know through experience. It must be real in my life to hold any lasting interest for me. I have sometimes thought that I am taking what is ordinary and extraordinary in my life and refocusing it through a lens of symbolic form. That way it can speak to me on all levels at once. I never think too long on a title for I simply call it what it is.