This is not a Photograph!

So have you ever been flipping through things on the internet and you come across an image that you just assume is a photograph and as you scroll down you see that it is actually a painting.  Well that just happened to me.  So I just had to share it with you.

I am always amazed by hyper-realistic art.  I think I have plenty of patience when it comes to creating art, but these people seem to have unreal amounts of patience and dedication to create these life like works that look like they could just walk off the page.   But I will let you decide what you think of this artist.  Unfortunately I can't find her name.

Any thoughts?  What do you think of it?  Who would you draw or paint if you had this talent?  Or do you think she could do better?

The simple things

Sometimes I try really hard to find you the most amazing feats of art ability that I forget to show you that the simplest of art forms can be really beautiful.  I found this image from the artist Robert Duncan and I wanted to share it with all of you.

First off it made me laugh since I have had several students who were in love with cows and I could totally picture them trying to ride one like the girl in this photo.  But then is also made me think of simpler times and lazy summer days.  But I want to know what you think?

What do you think of it?  Is it good art or bad art?  Does it bring back a memory for you or is it not worth your time to look at?

White is not always white

As hard as I try to explain it, when you are drawing or painting something that is supposed to be white, it is not always white in the image.  You still have to show the curves and the shadows with other colors than white.  I am hoping that this artist will help to show you what I am talking about.

I have happened to stumble across the Irish artist, Vincent Keeling.  Mr. Keeling has been trained in classic oil painting techniques which he has then applied to close ups of roses.  He is creating these big, beautiful, and realistic paintings of roses, cities and people.  I highly recommend you checking him out.

Self portrait

Haypenny Bridge

So what do you think of his style?  Would you like to send him an image and have him paint it?  What type of images would you paint if you had his talent?

What a beautiful dream

I happened to run across the computer generated paintings or Cyril Rolando from France.  It turns out he started playing with some simple computer programs before he started working with Photoshop.  He has since turned his hobby of playing into some incredibly beautiful works that look like paintings, but have all been made on a computer.

What do you think?  Do you believe that this is just a hobby for him?  Do you know what type of art that he is creating?  I'll give extra credit if you can tell me the genre that he is inspired by.

Grandma's demon?

SO this is one of the odder things that I have ever come across, it is a crocheted demon mask.

Now don't get em wrong, I think anyone that has the ability and the patience to crochet are amazing people, but I am not sure what I think about using their skills to create a demon mask.  I followed the link and actually there are several different types of masks that this woman can crochet, but I couldn't get the images to save, they were protected for some reason.  But let's just say she lives in a very cold climate and knits them as face masks to protect from the weather.

Let me know what you think.

So is this something you would wear in winter?  Do you find it cute or scary?  Would you have left it in white or perhaps chosen another color for it?  Can you think of something else that you would like to see her knit?

This chair can Wave

Creating tile mosiac art is one of the oldest forms of art known to man.  Ever since man figured out how to cut rocks into smaller pieces they have been laying it out into interesting patterns and designs.  Sometimes those designs told stories through pictures and sometimes it was just decoration, but it has long been a highly skilled tradition.

That being said, tile art has now taken a contemporary view of how to create it.  I couldn't figure out which artist made this tiled chair, but I know that it was made for a world wide tile artist competition that was held a couple of years ago.  Each artist was given a chair that they had to transform using tile.

I would love to know what you think.

If you zoom in you can see all of the individual tiles that had to be painstakingly applied one at a time.  But I want to know what you think of it?  Do you have a favorite part or technique that this artist did?  Or do you think it is horrible and if so why?  If you were given a chair to decorate, what would you do with it?

What is under a painting?

Have you ever wondered what was under a painting?  Have you ever thought that there might be something under it?  Most of us don't even stop to think about what even could be under a painting.

Well the artist Blake Neubert has taken the concept of what is under the painting to a whole new level.  I am going to warn you right now, he has a morbid and even creepy side to his artwork, but at the same time it is really kind of cool how he does this.

Enjoy!

So this is the painting before he scrapes away the paint.

And this is the after.

Okay, my first question has to be, how do you think he does this?  Does he have something between the layers of paint so that it scrapes off easily?  What would make someone even think of doing art that looks like this?  Do you find this gross or fascinating?  What image would you do if you could do this style?  Would you also do a person or animal or would you do something like looking into the inside of a car?

Carved for greatness

SO I am a very simple person.  I have no desire to have a fancy house with fancy things, that is until I saw these doors.  These are hand-carved doors that you have to specially order to fit not only your house buy your design choice.  I can't even imagine the hours that went into making each of these low relief masterpieces.

Take a look and tell me what you think?

SO what do you think?  Does it make you want to own a log home up with the mountains too?  Do you have a different design in mind?  I am not so much of a bear person, but I love the last one with the tree and deer.  Which one is your favorite and why?  If you could pick another design what would it be?

Dignity

It's not very often that I get to talk about South Dakota artists.  Dale Lamphere is  However, today I am really excited to show you the newest South Dakota sculpture that will be along I-90 by Chamberlain called "Dignity".

Dignity is a 50 foot sculpture of a Native American dancer that is being created out of steel.  She will dance high above the Missouri River and will be an amazing site to see.  Her unveiling ceremony will be this weekend in Chamberlain, September 17.

This is Dale in front of the stuatue.

Scale models in his workshop

Another scale model

Work in progress

Art or just distasteful?

So the old saying is "Art and beauty are in the eye of the beholder."  Basically it means that you can either like some types of art or you don't have to.  That is the reason for this blog, it is a way for you to tell me what you like and what you don't.  Everyone is entitled to your opinion.

So that being said, some people are not fond of artwork on the sides of buildings.  They think it is distasteful and sometimes often rude.  I want you to check out these buildings that have created controversy in their respected communities and tell me what you think.

What do you think of these buildings?  Do you think they are art or have they created eye sores in the community.  If you could paint something on the side of a building, what would you paint?

Right to the point

Artist Salavat Fidai has taken carving sculptures to an all new level, a miniature level at that.  He carves the graphite from a pencil into incredible works of art.  So stop for a moment and look at your pencil, if your holding a wooden pencil, and think about how small of a surface that is.

 Now think about sharpening that pencil.  How often does that break?  How hard do you struggle to just get a pencil tip so that you can use it.

Its WALLE

Okay, after looking at all of these images, what do you think of Salavat's style?
Is this something that you would like to try, or do you think you would get too frustrated?  What image would you like to see carved into the tip of a pencil?  Do you think there is a subject matter that he couldn't do?

European Adventures, how was your summer?

Whew... I don't know about you, but I have had an amazing summer traveling the world.  I have come home rested, rejuvenated and ready to go.  I am excited about all of the new ideas and lessons that I am ready to present to you.

In front of the Moulin Rouge

We climbed to the top of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  Did I ever mention I have a huge fear of heights?  This was a giant accomplishment for me and one of many firsts on this trip.

Among my firsts, was a trip to the catacombs under Paris.  We had to come up with plan C since the Louvre and Orsay museums were under water.

Another first, we climbed the steps of the Eiffel Tower.  This is on the first floor, and its hard to tell, but the girls are standing on a glass floor.  Again, I was happy to be the photographer and not on that glass floor.

Regan is enjoying a strawberry and nutella and whipped creme crepe.  I think she was wearing more than she ate, but it is so worth it.

The sun and sand of Barcelona was amazing after the cold, rainy days of Paris.  Enjoying the view at Park Guell.  Look at those beautiful mosiac benches behind the girls.  Gaudi designed all of those that wrap around the park.

This is Gaudi's stunning cathedral know as La Sagrada Familia or the sacred family.  It is scheduled to be finished in 2026, so anyone want to guess where my trip will go that year?  It is an already beautiful cathedral I can't wait to see what else they need to do to finish it.

This is the arena in Nimes.  This is the most complete arena left in the world.

Warm Seafood Salad!  This was probably one of my best meals all summer.  It was so good.

Any guesses where we are?  It really does lean to the side.

While we were checking out the "Statue of David" at Academia, they also show Michelangelo's unfinished works.  I love how you can see where he is going with this, but the details are still missing from the sculpture. 

This is the church of Assisi.  It was started by St. Francis himself. 

This is Nikole getting a lesson in making homemade pasta.  Our tour director hooked us up with this cute little couple and their small little resturant that serves about 50 people, so one bus at a time.  

In front of the Colosseum on our last day.  Look we are still smiling even after being together for 14 days.

We all threw our coins into Trevi fountain and made wishes to return to Rome.

I also had the wonderful opportunity to see the entire island of Ireland.  If you ever get the chance to see this amazing place I highly recommend it.

This was a little spot outside of Cork, Ireland.  See not everything is green.  But that is the Atlantic Ocean on the right side of the photo.

This is Mr. DeWitt kissing the Blarney stone.  It is said that kissing the stone will give you the gift of eloquence when it comes to talking.  I don't think he needed to kiss it, but maybe you disagree?

This is Blarney Castle.  Okay, maybe everything really is green in the Emerald Isle.

  So those were just a few images of my summer, but now I would like to hear about your summer vacation.  I would love to hear about what you did, what you saw and maybe what you learned.

Please share your ideas in at least 3 sentences with around 30 words.

Power in photoshop

So now we have just finished our photoshop projects, and while some of you did really good, others struggled.  But I want to show you what can be created on that program if you really work with it.

Artist Balazs Papay works with a couple of 3D computer programs, but one of them is photoshop.  Here are a couple of his works of art.

So what do you think?  Is this something that you wish you would have thought of?  Does this look like a career that would interest you?  Can you think of some interesting objects that he should put together?