David Caesar

I came across David Caesar's work while looking at some of the entries for the 2015 Kingston Prize. The Kingston Prize is a Portrait Painting competition and one of the biggest art prizes in Canada, happening every other year for many years now. Caesar’s beautifully rendered paintings are reminiscent of some of those Canadian painter Alexander Coleville.  I really appreciate his superfine craftsmanship and tremendous attention to detail.

Flight - David Caesar

Tony Luciani

Tony Luciani is a Toronto based artist that I greatly admire. The detail in the tree leaves on his painting "Down by the River" is astounding. This painting reminds me of a Danielle Richard in its style (though she almost exclusively chooses female subjects) backlighting and colouring.

Down by the River - Tony Luciani

Ian Bodnaryk

September 18, 19  & 20 I will be showing my art alongside fellow Toronto painter Ian Bodnaryk at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition in Nathan Phillips Square at City Hall.
Ian's paintings show his impressive skill at capturing realistic qualities of light and dimension.

Stacked by Ian Bodnaryk

Jacek Yerka

Jacek Yerka's imagination blows my mind. His finely crafted paintings and pastels bring his wonderful ideas to life in delightful and vivid scenes.

Jacek Yerka - The City is Landing

Nicola Verlato

One of his Zero Gravity series. Nicola Verlato paints super dynamic large scale realistic works in oil, which he designs using the software usually used to create computer special effects for the movies. His imagination depicting the instant of a car crash at impact is fantastic and his painting is impeccable, capturing subtle nuances of light, shade and colour with paint.

Take the Road to Nowhere - Nicola Verlato

Marco Grassi

I think the degree of detail that Italian painter Marco Grassi includes in his highly realistic portraits is fantastic. The pores of the woman's face and the little threads of the fabric on the shawl are really amazing, such patience!

Blue Shawl - by Marco Grassi

Atle Skudal

Atle Skudal is a Norwegian artist, painting in the Dutch Master style. He epitomizes artists that paint "curious objects" as their subject matter. Beautiful rendering and capturing of atmosphere in paint. His work reminds me of some of that by of Richard Thomas Davis.

To Sail is Necessary - To Live is Not

Walter Dolphyn

Walter Dolphyn is a Belgian painter, with incredible talent and a wry sense of humour. Using visual puns to tell the stories in his paintings and poke fun at the conventions of Dutch Master realism of his native Flemish artists. His paintings are not only great technically for their realistic appearance, but they're so much fun!

Walter Dolphyn - Windows for Tom

Bryan Drury

What can you say about this level of hyper realistic painting - and at such a small scale!! Many hyper realists will paint gigantic canvases so as to be able to realize detail. Bryan Drury of the US manages to cram in this kind of detail into this painting at only 18x24 inches!! Unbelievable!!!

Jann - by Bryan Drury

Simon Hennessey

Many people criticize photorealist painting by arguing that "you may as well just have a photo". I like the way Simon Hennessey of England describes the way his paintings differ from photorgaphs:

"My paintings may be viewed as a photographic representation of reality, but in truth my artwork transcends into it's own abstraction of reality. I do not adhere to a true mimetic depiction of a photograph, I use the camera only as a source to assist me with gathering information.
My process of adding or removing detail, altering depth, adding textures, form and colour values and their relationship within the painting, allows me to create an illusion of a reality not seen in any photographic source. My Paintings therefore appear clearer and more distinct than a photograph.
constructing my own interpretations of a reality results in blurring the boundaries of what is real and what is made up. Presenting the viewer with a simulation of reality, or a hyper reality.
 "

Sinmon Hennessey - Lens Reflection Series

David A. Smith

I came upon this artist through the John Mayer Album "Born and Raised". He is one of the few craftsman of artisan glass in the style of the belle époque and Victorian age.  I'm astounded by his incredible draftsmanship. Highly stylized, intricate, whimsical, ornate and finely detailed drawings become realized in shaped and gilded glass creations. Unbelievable.

Born and Raised Album Cover Art - David A. Smith

Richard Thomas Davis

Richard Thomas Davis is one of the most incredible realists painting today. His details are infinitesimal, his ability to capture light hitting any surface is phenomenal. Realism to him is not just depicting a figure or object realistically - it is presenting reality as it plainly is, no fantasy or artifice, just reality -  perfectly rendered. Stupendous.

Basement Self Portrait - Richard Thomas Davis

Daniel Sprick

Daniel Sprick is an American realist painter. He has an uncanny ability to capture colour and light in his paintings, but even more amazing is his ability to also depict depth and atmosphere. Mind blowing.

Vapor and Dusk - Daniel Sprick

Yellow Cloth - Daniel Sprick

Danielle Richard

Danielle Richard is an award winning French Canadian realist oil painter and pastel artist. She specifically focuses on capturing the essence of femininity. I appreciate her ability to capture quality of light, the tranquility that her art evokes and her fantastic skill in rendering the female human figure.

Eau qui dort - Danielle Richard

Julie Heffernan

Imagination. I marvel at paintings that exhibit such extraordinary imagination. I like abstract art, it appeals to me more on an emotional level, but I'm rarely amazed or astounded by it. Paintings like this offer so many intriguing aspects besides their sheer visual splendour, I can't help but say FANTASTIC!

Self portrait as a Broken Home - Julie Heffernan

Bruce Pashak

Bruce Pashak - a Canadian artist. Besides wonderful rendering and painting ability Bruce creates some amazing 3D lenticulars that take his work to a whole new dimension. They are enormous paintings that are shot with a 3D camera and transferred onto back-lit lenticular plexiglass. If you're not familiar with lenticular it is a corrugated surface that has an image on 2 sides of the corrugation, so that when the image is moved or in the case of these large pieces, when you walk by them, the image changes and seems to move. Such a cool idea ad so well executed - I loved these when I saw them at Art Toronto a few years ago.

What The Flowers Tell Me - Bruce Pashak

Ricardo Fernandez Ortega

La Bienvenida - Ricardo Fernandez Ortega

I keep discovering fantastic artists!

I am continually discovering fantastic artists creating images for us to enjoy, be stimulated and amazed by. In this blog I am going to post my thoughts and reflections on some of my favourite discoveries  from the past and present.

For instance: Greg Simkins of California USA

Incredible concepts rendered in acrylic paint. Rich in detail and imagination FANTASTIC!

Good Knight by Greg Simkins