I was living in L.A. when Mark Ryden came galloping out of the subconscious and burst onto the scene with the Meat Show at the Mendenhall Gallery in Pasadena. He was all over the place after that. Spontanious combustion. Pure americana.
His website here.
Steve Huston’s painting “Heave” and a detail from “Working Man”. I met Steve when I was in L.A. through Bill Stout at his Sunday life drawing studio in Pasadena around 1995. Steve was teaching figure drawing at Art Center and according to his bio was just beginning his serious work on fine art. I remember seeing some of his early work with the boxers but it was mostly hardcore drawing and not nearly as delicious as it is now with his color palette. His FB page has a lot of great info on process for the student and uninitiated. His work makes me want to eat paint.
Nicolai Fechin a Russian transplant to America escaping the Bolsheviks. He moved from NY to Taos and eventually LA. Tom Buttner turned me on to his work, but he had a way with drawing the face which intrigues me.
Came across J.A.W. Cooper’s work quite by accident today. I was doing a search to see if Billy Shire still ran the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in East L.A. and came across their list of upcoming 2013 exhibits there. The gallery still has the quality and focus they have always had. Here is a preview of Cooper’s work. I am loving the renewed interest in old techniques by young artists.
artthatdoesntsuck 