Real or Paint?

Have you ever wanted to create a painting that is so realistic that people have to do a double take at the picture?  Well a Swedish artist by the name of Yrjo Edlemann is a hyper-realistic artist that paints wrapping paper in such a realistic manner that you would think they are photographs.

I know it is hard to believe but these are actually paintings.  If you could paint anything like a hyper-realistic artist what would you paint?  Is wrapping paper and tape and interesting subject or would you pick something else?  Can you think of something that would be harder to paint that shiny paper?

Paper, not plastic

I have recently stumbled onto mixed media artist Emma Hardy.  She studied sculpture in London at the Wimbledon School of Art.  She uses two mediums that I think are would be very difficult to work with, but she makes incredible art with them.

In case you are wondering what her medium is, it is brown paper and packaging tape.  Can you believe that those are the only mediums that she uses?  What do you think about them?  Do you think this is something you could do?  She mostly does people, what would be your subject of choice?

A moment on this earth

A former student found the Cuban Artist Jorge Rodriguez Gerada and thought I should check him out.  I personally love his work which is created in dirt and charcoal.  His pieces are also done in really large scale on the sides of buildings or in empty fields.

Since his work is done with natural materials, it is only there for a short time and then mother nature takes it away.  He says that it is the same as how our moments on both earth and in the spotlight is just as short.

Do you agree with his statement?  How does that make you feel?   Would you be able to create work like his and be okay with it going away after a big rain storm?  Tell me your thoughts.

What did you do with your summer?

I know you are not really ready to be back, but I would like to know what you did this summer.  What did you see?  Where did you go?  What did you do? It might not sound fun or exciting to you, but I am really interested.

I will share my favorite thing this summer.  It was my Europe trip to London, Paris and Barcelona.  I took 24 people on an adventure, and yes, it was an adventure.  Things did not go according to plan all of the time, but I had a great group and they made the best of every situation.

one third wasted

Take a look at these three pictures before you read about them.  Form an opinion before you do anything else.

Strawberries

Pineapple

Lemons

It has been said that a third of all of the food in the world goes to waste.  Usually that means it has just spoiled before it has even been prepared to be eaten.  An Austrian photographer recently took some photos of spoiled food.  I have a few of them pictured here.  Now if I hadn't told you it was spoiled and rotting food would you have guessed that that is what it was?  How do these pictures make you feel?  Do you feel differently now that you know what it is?

Guess the medium

Okay so here is a challenge question that will be worth two blog points to anyone that can answer my questions.  You must answer all questions.

First question, I need you to tell me what medium these "coins" are made from?

Second question, who is the artist that created these "coins"?

Only the first correct answer will get the double points.  What do you think of this type of art?

Looking beyond normal

I  haven't talked a lot about the use of colors and abstraction to create art.  I wanted to point out that you don't always have to make your world look like it does.  For instance look at this picture below.

This picture by Robert Doesburg is of a certain animal.  I am guessing that you can tell what type of animal it is even though the colors are not normal.  So I am wondering what it would take for you to not know what type of animal a work of art is trying to describe.  Can you guess this animal?

Again this work of art is not completely filled in and the colors are not normal, but you can probably still guess what this animal is.  But can you guess these next three?

What makes some of these pictures easy to identify?  What makes them harder to figure out, is it their colors or lines or shapes?  What animal would you create adn how would you hide it?