Rodrigo Luff Combines Realism and Imagination in Paintings

Rodrigo Luff is originally from San Salvador, El Salvador currently living in Sydney, Australia. He studied life drawing at the Julian Ashton Art School from 2006-2009. The artist creates amazing paintings where he combines realism and imagination, often depicting women with their companion animals. These luminous paintings have ethereal feel to them that takes the viewer on a journey to a world where women and animals co-exist in harmony. Besides painting on traditional surface, the artist paints these detailed paintings on moleskin paper to create a surprise factor "this is painted on a moleskin?".

His work is "inspired by science and nature and his connection to the natural world. All of Rods works welcome you to reflect on a mysterious dimension with its vivid colours and moving imagery."  via

Rodrigo did first two solo exhibitions Moleskine Project at Spoke Art Gallery which sold out. Ever since it has become an annual event that he co-curates with Spoke Art. The Moleskine artwork from the exhibitions have been compiled and published into two volumes of books. His paintings are in gallery exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin and New York. He has done solo shows in the United States and exhibited in group exhibitions.

3D Illustrations Created With Dirt, Coffee Beans and Cereal

Sarah Rosado was born in Bronx to an American mother and a Puerto Rican father, currently lives is Manhattan. Sarah has always been passionate about art, as a kid she would scribble and draw on almost anything she could get her hands on. She has evolved from drawing with pencil to digital, and later she got interested in photography.

"She developed an interest in photography focusing on capturing images and other creative scenes that are intended to fool the eye of the beholder with thought provoking and illusional images that are open for different interpretations by the viewer."

In 2013, the mixed media artist started an ongoing series "Dirty Little Secrets" combining her two passions - art and photography. The illustrations from the series were created using unexpected and not-so-pretty medium such as dirt that she sourced from local parks. Over the years, the artist included grains, flowers, tea, coffee beans, cereal, oreos, bagels, and vegetables into her tool box to draw with. Using artistic skills she shapes these things into owl, portraits of musicians, objects, landscapes, iconic monuments etc. adding real things that give her final piece a 3D feel.

Her work has been featured in The New York Post, MTV, Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Cosmopolitan and more. She has more than 13K followers on Instagram who love her artwork. You can view her latest illustrations created using ketchup and red wine.

Claire Rosen Creates Optical Illusion By Photographing Birds Against Vintage Wallpaper

Claire Rosen is an award winning artist and a fine art photographer. Claire earned her graduate degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006 and Bard College at Simon's Rock in 2003.

She has worked on a number of series, each one a collection of portraits of live birds, and preserved bugs and insects against a correlating William Morris wallpaper from the Victoria and Albert Collection. The vintage wallpaper patterns highlight the colors in each creature placed in front of it creating an optical illusion. Claire has photographed from Parakeets to Hyacinth Macaws, from Gyrfalcon to Barn Owls, and from bugs to butterflies. “It wasn’t just colour, it was more about my perceived idea of their personality: exotic, domestic, cheeky, confrontational.”

It's usually challenging for the artist to work with the birds since they don't sit still, so Claire contacted her local pet store and set up a mini-studio in their lobby. “The birds didn’t sit still, so I had to be patient. You just have to wait and hope that something good happens. Usually it does.” via

Claire featured on Forbes “30 under 30” list for Art & Design in 2012 and 2013. For her work she has received recognition from Aesthetica Art Prize, Communication Arts Photo Annual, IPA, Graphis, PDN Photo Annual, People’s Choice Photoville Fence, Photolucida Critical Mass, Prix de la Photographie and Sony World Awards. 

Her work has gained a spotlight in several publications including Complex Art+Design, Creative Quarterly Journal, The Guardian UK Observer, Hi Fructose Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, National Geographic Proof, Refinery29, Slate Magazine, The Washington Post Insights, and The World Photography Organization. She has displayed her work at various exhibition all around the globe and her work can be found in number of collections. 

Collection of Crystal Animals by Australian Artist Patrick Gundersen

Patrick Gundersen is a crystal finder born in Norway, at the age of 4 moved to Australia with his mother. His journey and later what became his career started at his school. One day, his geology teacher brought a large quartz crystal found locally by one of the parents, to show to the class and Patrick got instantly interested in crystals and never looked back. Patrick has been working with crystals for over 15 years now, self-collecting unique gems and hand-selecting from travels around the globe.

"Crystals are just one of the many precious gifts the earth has to offer us, millions of years in the making, their amazing colors lying in darkness waiting for human hands to hold them."

He has been working on an ongoing series "Crystal Creature" where he gets to combine his passion for art and his life-long fascination with the mineral kingdom. The series features flora and fauna, and other objects fused in with beautiful crystals.

These artworks feature black and white photography including of the crystals the artist collected on his travels, combined together digitally layer upon layer and re-tinted with color to finish the process. The end result is stunning! If you are fond of beauty in the stone then you must visit Instagram to join him on this adventure. To see the available art prints, visit his online store - Folk Stone.

3D Paper-Cut Light Boxes By Aline Maire Of Abracadaboxes

 

  

 

French artist Aline Maire creates whimsical paper-cut light boxes which she calls Abracadaboxes. Each illustration is made with hand-cut paper and arranged strategically in layers inside wooden box frame creating a 3D image. The artist uses LED lights that make the pieces glow with a soft light and cast magical shadows, taking an on-looker on a trip to a mythical land.

When Maire first came across paper-cut light boxes of Harikrishanan Panicker & Deepti Nair she instantly feel in love with their beauty and began her own adventure in the field of paper art. Her work is mainly inspired by nature, films and her own imagination.

You can visit her online store for light boxes with original paper cut and diy kits that you can download and make your own light box at home. The kits comes with instructions, available here.