Teun Hocks

Teun Hocks is a Dutch photographer that was born in Leiden, Netherlands. The photographer studied at Academie St. Joost. He now lives and works in Breukelen. Hocks teaches at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. 

Hocks photographs himself as the main character in his surreal images. His characters are going through a midlife crisis. During their travels through the midlife crisis, they are put in humorous situations. The scenes are look like they are from a movie or a play. Which is fitting because Hocks is also a video artist.

Hocks artist process is far from normal. He describes it as, “…There’s a big backdrop that I paint or build, or whatever’s needed, and I stand in the middle of that. Then I take a picture of myself in black and white and enlarge it. I do it myself in the darkroom with a little bit of help. Then I tone the picture sepia. And later I add oil paint. I color everything, but it’s transparent, so that you can see the picture underneath.”

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman was born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. She grew up with her four siblings on Long Island. She studied art State University College at Buffalo. After becoming bored with the limitations of painting, Sherman turned to photography. 

Sherman is considered one of the most important and influential contemporary artists.

For over thirty years she has been her own model. However, the photographs are not self portraits. She says that the characters are so unlike her that they are the opposite of her. She draws her inspiration from movies, TV, magazines, internet, art history. Sherman also makes films. She has become successful female photographer. An image from her 1981 series Centerfold sold for $3.9 million.

I prefer Sherman’s early work. I like the black and white photographs. I particularly like the series she did as a housewife. I used it as inspiration for a charcoal self portrait. Sherman says this about the her art process, “Suddenly the reflection I’m looking at is not at all me. Suddenly it’s like a phantom that’s just popped out of the mirror, and that’s when I know the character is right on. There have been moments where I remember this thing suddenly appearing and I can’t believe that’s me!”

Parke Harrison

Suspension

Turning to Spring

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison are a husband and wife art team. Robert was born in Fort Leonard Wood, MO in 1968. In 1964 Shana was born in Tulsa, OK. Robert earned his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from University of New Mexico. While his wife earned her BFA from William Woods College.

The duo have been making photographic images together for 20 years. They work on the relationship between technology and the environment. Robert has said that, “ My photographs tell stories of loss, human struggle, and personal exploration within landscapes scarred by technology and over-use…. [I] strive to metaphorically and poetically link laborious actions, idiosyncratic rituals and strangely crude machines into tales about our modern experience.”

The surreal images they create make me think about my images and how I can make them better. I want to be able to use my imagination to the effect that they are able. To be able to make the images in my head a reality. 

Sally Mann

Sally Mann was born in Lexington, Virginia in 1951.  She took up photography at Putney School, from which graduated in 1969. Later she received her BA and MA from Hollins College in creative writing. She has one many awards including NEA, NEH, and Guggenheim Foundation grants.

Mann is best known for her controversial series Immediate Family. The series consists of 65 black and white photographs of her three children. They were all younger than ten. The images were of the children doing normal kid stuff. Some did touch on the subjects insecurity, loneliness, injury, sexuality and death. As such some of her children are photographed in the nude. This caused considerable backlash. People thought it was exploitive and child porn. Mann countered, “natural through the eyes of a mother, since she has seen her children in every state: happy, sad, playful, sick, bloodied, angry and even naked.”

Personally I like her Southern Landscape series the best. It was a change for the photographer. I am always drawn to landscapes, but have been into black and white landscapes recently. Hers are like no other photographers. They look like something happened to the camera or film, so that the viewer is only allowed to see part of the image. Therefore we are only getting part of the story. I am entranced by this partial landscape.

David Anderson: Rough Beauty

David Anderson was born in 1970 in Lansing, Michigan. At the age of nine he started photographing with his Kodak Instamatic camera. As an adult he worked as producer for MTV and as a member of Bill Clinton’s White House staff. 

Anderson took a class with Texas photographer Keith Carter. In that class the students put their secrets in a hat, then they chose another classmates secret at random. The secret Anderson got changed his life. His paper read, “I’m more scared than I look.”

One of his friends suggested that he drive to a near by town that was known to for its racist past. Vidor was known for having Klan activity. Anderson drove around and took pictures of whatever he found interesting. He claims he did not seek out anything racist. Many people of the people of Vidor felt they were portrayed negatively. Anderson always says in interviews that,“I developed such affection for the town.” He did publish a book a book of the photographs titled Rough Beauty.

The photographs are reminiscent of the Farm Security Administration. That is probably what makes me like them. I am fascinated by the work and style of the FSA. This series is stylistically similar to the FSA photos as well. The top photograph is my favorite. I like that I can not see the girl’s face. I want to know if the chicken is something she is raising for dinner. It is similar to how children sold eggs during the Great Depression to help feed their families. The bottom photograph makes me wonder why the men aren’t working. Is it their day off? Do they not have jobs? What is the one man drinking? Then again maybe I am the one reading too much into the image due to the past of the town. I could be the one stereotyping.

Clyde Butcher

Clyde Butcher is an American landscape Photographer. He was born in Kansas City, MO to a steelworker. Having scrap metal around him gave the artist the perfect environment to design and create little boats out of sheet metal. When Butcher was at California Polytechnic State University working on his degree in architecture he discovered photography to better present his models. 

Butcher was exposed to an Ansel Adams photography exhibition in 1963. This led Butcher to experiment with black and white landscape photography. In 1970 Butcher left his career in architecture to start showing his photography at art festivals. He then started a multimillion dollar company that sold photographs to department stores. When the stress became too much in 1977 he sold the company.

In 1983 the photographer’s son was killed by a drunk driver. He spent a lot of time in the in the wilderness of the Big Cypress National Preserve. It became a refuge and also a spiritual experience for him. While in the nature of the preserve Butcher decided to only work in black and white photography. He went out and purchased a 8x10 view finder camera.

I love the eery beauty of nature in his photographs. It is very dramatic. I also like that Butcher chose to use black and white. He knew that his landscapes did not need color to be effective. That color took away from structure of the trees and plants. This is a decision I too have struggled with. I get so much inspiration from Butcher’s work.

Tim Gaudreau

Tim Gaudreau earned an MFA from Maine College of Art and a BFA from the University of New Hampshire. He earned his MFA in both interdisciplinary studio art and critical theory. Currently Gaudreau lives and works in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

He is an eco-artist that is passionate about how the environment effects people and nature. It is his view that, "it is the responsibility of the artist to communicate a relevant vision about our world and society," He communicates that vision using a variety of media. Some of the media he works in are: photography, video, graphics and sculpture. 

Gaudreau undertook a project to photograph all his trash for a year. "Self Portrait as Revealed by Trash: 365 Days of Photographing Everything That I Throw Out" is a massive photograph work of over 5,000 images. The artist does take pictures of the things he recycles because it still takes energy to produce and recycle the product. The project forced the Gaudreea to change his personal habits. He said in an interview, “After photographing so many plastic bottles, there came a point when I couldn't bear to admit throwing out another one. I started by cutting back everywhere I could. I stopped using plastic and foil wrap in my kitchen; I started mixing my own iced tea from concentrate; Drinking water came from gallon jugs rather than pint bottles, then ultimately just tap water.”

This project inspired one of my pieces. I wanted to do something that showed that showed my eco-footprint. I don’t want my art to get too preachy without showing that I too am guilty.

Jann Arthus-Bertrand

Barge on the White Nile near Bor, Jonglei, South Sudan (6°11’ N, 31°33’ E)

Wind turbines of Banning Pass, near Palm Springs, California, United States (33°55’ N, 116°42’ W).

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was born in 1946. From a young age he had a passion for he environment and animals. When he was 20 he became the director of a nature reserve in central France. He also traveled to Kenya at the age of 30 to study lions for three years. That is where his art started. Yann used a camera as a tool to capture his observations of the lions. He also worked as a hot air balloon pilot while in Africa. It is where he learned to take pictures from the air. It also gave him the view point of the “overall picture” of the area and its resources. 

As a photographer Yann collaborated with Géo, National Geographic, Life, Paris Match, Figaro Magazine. He then started a project called “Earth From the Air.”  The book compiled from the images has sold over 3 million copies and the outdoor exhibition has seen by about 200 million people. Yann also did the documentary “Planet Ocean.” The film was about the importance of oceans in the ecosystems. Yann sees himself as an environmentalist before an artist.

Agnes Denes

Agnes Denes was born in Budapest, Hungry. Along with her parents she survived the Nazi occupation of Hungry. She was also raised in Sweden and the United States. Currently Denes is based out of New York City. Denes started her art career as a painter at New York School and Columbia University. The canvas became to constraining, so Denes moved on to other mediums.

Denes is a pioneer in land art. She is most famous for her work “Wheatfield, a Confrontation 1982.”  It was created during a six month period in Battery Park City Landfill, Manhattan. Denes planted and harvested wheat near Wall Street and the World Trade Center. The piece was about the “mismanagement, the use of the land, the misuse of the land, and world hunger.” 

Another land project Denes did was in Finland. It is protected by the Finish Government for 400 years. In 1996 Denes completed “Tree Mountain- A Living Time Capsule.”  It took place in an old gravel quarry. Volunteers from different countries planted 11,000 trees in a particular pattern. The volunteers were then given a certificate entitling them and the heirs to the care of the trees for 400 years. Art historian Robert Hobbs says that, “In the history of art there have been a few artists’ artists—individuals who have emphasized in their work the raising of provocative questions and who have also tested the limits of art by taking it into new, unforeseen areas and by using it for distinctly new functions. Agnes Denes is one of these special artists.”

Banksy

An English street artist, painter, political activist, and film activist goes by the pseudonymous Banksy. There is no conformation on who Banksy actually is. He became a freehand graffiti artist in 1990-1994. When he realized that is was easier to not get caught using stencils, he made the switch. It became a calling card for the artist. He tends to have anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-establishment themes. 

Banksy holds “exhibitions” on city streets on given weeks and then does street art cross that city. People track the street art while the exhibition is going on. Sometimes there is also a phone number viewers can call to get more information about the piece. Also the viewer can follower the exhibition on twitter. 

I like that Banksy believes that art should be for all people. He brings art to the everyday person. Some people do not appreciate the art and think it is vandalism. They paint over his artwork. Banksy also believes that art is also best done outside. I think that is interesting being that he is not painting the outdoors, he is just painting outdoors. 

Jerry Uelsmann

Jerry Uelsmann is traditional photographer from Detroit. In 1957 he earned his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. Three years later he earned his MS and MFA from Indiana University. The same year the photographer started teaching photography The University of Florida in Gainesville. This is where he currently resides with his artist wife, Maggie Taylor. 

Uelsmann had his first solo show at Museum of Modern Art in 1967. Soon after he received the Receives Guggenheim Fellowship. Uelsmann created his composite images using multiple negatives in the darkroom. Some of his images are the total work of many years photographs. He is a champion of photomontages. Although Uelsmann is interested in the digital revolution in art, he does not use it himself. He feels he can accomplish what he needs to in the darkroom. His wife, however, is a photoshop montage artist. 

All of Uelsmann’s images are in black and white. The images are surrealist landscapes. The landscapes look mystical. They have an other worldly appearance that make the viewer have an almost religious feeling. It hard to put into words how the images make you feel. I think each viewer needs to feel them for themselves. 

Nicole Evans and Pat Farrell: Surreal Door Installations

“We are inundated with news and information about man kinds negative impact on our natural surroundings this project promotes and recognizes our creative and beautiful touches in nature. How a child at the beach may creatively stack a series of rocks and leave them for the next beach comber to find. A hiker may pick a bouquet of wild flowers and leave them as a beautiful present for the next person on the path.” -from the artists website

The amazing surreal door installations are part of an art exhibition festival in Kings County, Nova Scotia. The art festival is called the Uncommon Common Art in Nova Scotia. It is an environmentally friendly, community project that is meant to explore nature. For the last few years the Nicole Evans and Pat Farrell have created different door installations. Each one is bright and looks surreal within its natural backdrop. It cries Photoshop, but is not a photo manipulation. The top image looks like it is impossible for the doors to be balanced in such a way. I want to see he other side to see what the support structure is. The installations are technically and aesthetically magical.

Leszek Kostuj

Leśny ratuje Księżyc V

Machina mistyczna

Leszek Kostuj is a Polish artist that graduated from Pedagogy and Art Department at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He works in painting, drawing, and traditional and computer graphics. Most of his artwork is done in either acrylic or oil painting. 

Kostuj started off painting smaller more realistic drawings. He quickly moved on sureal images that border on abstraction. He states, “My art is in constant change, I am in search of the forms of artistic communication that would be optimal for me. When I begin to paint, it is quite frequent that I do not ponder over the final effect. Only when on the surface of the painting, the emerging patches, lines, colours begin to coalesce, the imagination rouses and provides an impulse to further artistic release. At this stage of creation, what begins to appear is ideas, visions, and concepts – all in order to create a work that is a fulfillment of my artistic and aesthetic needs.”

The first thing that grabs my attention about Kostuj’s art is the vivd colors he uses. They put the viewer in the right mood to explore the painting. For example in the top painting the blues make it look like a dreamy night, so it makes it all right to explore the image, even though the top bird like creature may be sitting on a pile of skulls. The dreaminess of it leads the viewer to believe that this world id not real and they make wake up if they discover anything truly terrible. The colors of the bottom image lends a cohesiveness to the piece that makes viewing a pleasing experience. That can make the viewer notice more subtle things like the hidden face or symmetry of the piece.  

Paintings by Kostuj have a magical, storybook feel. They look like they should be in a book bringing children to another world in pictures. Like most surreal images I want to know more. It is what draws me to surreal artwork. The mysterious quality to the art. Never quite ever understanding the image completely. There may be a hidden meaning somewhere that you just aren’t getting. It is a creative and imaginative area of the visual arts that being a little different okay. I like that.

Michael Ticcino: Photo-Surreal Series

Tendrils of Time

This Section of the Road Proved Most Difficult for Franco

Michael Ticcino of Audubon, Pennsylvania has always worked as a commercial artist. As he has gotten older he decided to start working on some of his own work. He does surreal digital artwork, while also working on more realistic digital art of Valley Forge, PA. Taccino says, “My art has always been commercial, as I have been in Advertising my entire career. Now, as I mature, I feel the need to create for myself. I use a camera as one vehicle and a computer as another. The process varies. Sometimes it begins and ends with the camera and other times the camera is only the first step. I tend to think of the process as making an image or impression rather than photography. Although I love my camera it’s just a means to an end.”

Most of Ticcino’s artwork does not come from a purpose in mind. It stem from something he sees, and will see where the image takes him from there. He keeps his mind blank to let it be influenced by what he sees. If the image does not workout he puts it aside to look at later. Unfortunately, Ticcino does not travel much so uses some licensed images from other artists. The  artwork is done in black and white “because colour is not necessary in order for these pieces to be rewarding to me.” For these pieces the titles are very important. Taccino says, “The titles are very important because they complete the visual.  They are a large part of the viewing experience.  The image should never be displayed without its title.”

I am drawn to the drama of Taccino’s images. They are masterfully done to force the viewer to look exactly where the artist wants you to look. In This Section of the Road Proved Most Difficult for Franco I am forced to look at the back of the old man’s head and then directly above to the square in the sky. The funny thing is that my entire series will have squares in the sky, being sucked backward to show what could happen. Perhaps, that is why I really admire this piece. It is an interesting composition, with an even more interesting title. Tendrils of Time shows how a house has roots. A family lays down roots in a house, and it becomes a parts of them. I think it is amazingly beautiful, almost poetic.

Jonathan Andrew: World War II Bunkers

Cramond Island WW2 submarine defense boom

Military Casemate Type 623, West of Koudekerke, The Netherlands

Jonathan Andrew is a photographer from Manchester, United Kingdom. For the last twenty years he has called Amsterdam home. He is landscape photographer who does features for renowned magazines such as National Geographic. When he is on his own he likes to work on landscape photography while he travels. 

Andrew started documenting bunkers he came across in Europe. Drawn to the history of the bunkers, the artist decided to photograph them. He had free time, because of the down turn of the economy at that time. He photographed his subjects at dusk, so that the buildings would look less flat. Artificial lights were used like in a technique called light painting. The photographer would leave his lens open, while running around flashing lights on architectural features. He also likes to take winter photographs, because of the light and lack of weeds near the buildings.

I like that Andrews took the photographs at night. It gives the buildings a different look than viewers would normally see. The buildings look other worldly or futuristic. They look like modern buildings from a different time period. I also like the gray of the concrete with blue and purple of the sky. The colors work very well together. In some images graffiti is clearly visible. Instead of taking the shot from a graffiti free angle, Andrews embraced the graffiti as part of the story. 

This series is very much what I am interested in. What happened to these historical buildings? They were just left behind. What an important, yet horrifying part of history lying in waste. I am impressed that Andrews had the ambition to travel all across Europe to capture these landmarks on film for eternity. There is a story that still needs to be told with the buildings. I feel like what ever they have to tell isn’t done. 

Henrietta Harris

Your Tomorrow

The Greatest

Henrietta Harris is a New Zealand based artist that works in watercolors, gouache,  pencil, and waterproof pens. Harris does a mix of commercial illustration work, commissions, and her own projects. She was raised on a vineyard in Auckland, where she was shy and a little weird. In 2006, Harris graduated from Aukland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She has done commercial work for Flying Nun Records, Amnesty International, Four Paws Media and Vice Magazine.

The illustrator works from photographs that she takes of her subjects, reference images from books, or the internet. She then may altar the images in Photoshop or use her scanner. All the paintings and drawings are done by hand. 

The series, Hold Still, is a collection of portraits that look like their faces are melting. Perhaps, they look more like they are on an old television that can’t get service, so the faces keep getting distorted. The faces in some images look like part of their brains are getting blown out from their heads. It is a creepy image, yet it is fascinating at the same time. It is a sort of fantasy world where the viewer is mixed between horrified and amazed at what is happening before their eyes. Hold Still is done in a range of pastels with the background being either bright or dark. This lends to the mood Harris is trying to create with each image. The illustrator claims that she does not want to explain to much of her paintings, because she does not want to give away the mystery of them. I think that is what I like about them, they are mysterious. I wonder about them later in the day, long after having looked at them. That is what makes this a great series.

Peter Lippmann: Paradise Parking

Peter Lippmann is best known for his work as a still life photographer. He has also worked with landscapes, animals and people. The photographer is well known in the advertising community. Lippmann has been published in Vogue, New York Times, and Marie Claire. His collaborations includes such famous brans as Flora, Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne, Minute Maid, Chianti, Downy, Wilkinson Sword. He was born in New York, but raised in New Jersey. Lippmann currently lives and works in Paris. 

I am in love with Lippmann’s new series Paradise Parking. The cars are all antique cars that have been completely over run by the nature that surrounds it. The vehicles look like they are being overcome, and may be deteriorating into the earth. It is a beautiful look at what happens when nature takes over man-made objects. 

After two months of asking, Lippmann finally gained access to a family estate. When he got to where the cars are it was infested with snakes. The photographer was also faced with his assistant getting lyme disease. It took Lippmann two years to complete the project.

In a perfect world I would have the time find a place like this and the ability to paint it justly. It is a perfect find for what I am interested in. However, I do not know of such a wonderful place. I will stick to my junkyards, unless a place like that comes to my attention. 

Kai Fagerström: Once Upon a Home

Kai Fagerström is a Finish photographer that primarily photographs wildlife. The photographer is a contributor to National Geographic. He won the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year for both 2010 and 2012.  In 2011 he won the Finnish Wildlife Photographer and Winner 2012 IFWPY contest.

The series that caught my attention was Once Upon a Home.Winner. Fagerström lived near a cottage that became abandoned after the owner died in a fire. The cottage became a home to woodland animals. For fifteen years Fagerström documented the lives of the animals in the abandoned buildings near his home. He is all right with long amount of time it takes to accomplish the project.“This is fine with me,” he says. “The journey is more important than the destination.”

The Once Upon a Home is a magical look into the lives of these animals. When the people moved out, the animals moved in. They can be seen peering out of cracks in dilapidated sheds, like the wolf in the above image. An owl is backlit through a window in one shot giving a erie look to the image. His photographs are dark because he does not use a flash, which would scare the animals. The series looks like it is telling the story of a family of animals. One can almost see this as a storybook or fairytale. 

The series also shows the patience, determination, and vision of the artist. The top photograph took several nights of Fagerström waiting to get the perfect image of the dog staring at the bank vole. I am not sure if the dog is just curious about what the bank vole is doing or if he is trying to figure out a way in there to get it. I like the stare down, though. The most dramatic example of his determination is when he waited four years to get a picture of a family of badgers. He set his camera on the window sill, stood on a ladder outside, while using a camera remote to take the picture. He would stand on his ladder outside for hours.  In some circumstances the photographer will lay down food for the animals to draw them out. 

When Fagerström starts a project he usually has an idea in mind. For this project it was abandoned buildings. “Deserted buildings are so full of contradictions,” he says. “I am fascinated by the way nature reclaims spaces that were, essentially, only ever on loan to humans.” I did a series of photographs last semester on abandoned buildings that were reclaimed by nature. My focus was on the plant life that took over the buildings. I never thought of the actual creatures that may find the buildings home. His idea is brilliant. It really makes think about how this could be applied to my car series right now.

I changed my mind again. This is my last time. I am now doing watercolors of the junkyard. I have always been interested in what happens to our things once we have no use for them. Last semester I did a series of photographs of abandoned houses. This is a continuation of the them, but with vehicles and watercolor. I will need to check out some more junkyards to get more pictures. Right now I have three paintings in beginning stages.

Mary Lou Ferbert

Three Carousel Horses - 24" x 24" - 1991

Chicory And Tire - 28¼" x 39¾" - 1986

Mary Lou Ferbert is a Cleveland based artist that works in only watercolor. She has done commissions for big cooperations and professional sports teams. There is not one genre of painting that she concentrates on. Her paintings vary from industrial art to botany. 

Ferbert was drawn to the landscape of Cleveland area while working on a calendar in the eighties. This brought her to notice ecological problems in the area. She started a series of plants trying to survive in urban environments. The artist tried to show the adaption and survival of the plants. I like the way she uses light by working in only transparent watercolors. It allows each glaze to show throw the one above it. There is a luminous glow to the paintings. I also like the amount of character she gives to her paintings. For example the carousal horse looks sad. It leaves the viewer wondering if it is sad because it has none to ride it,  or perhaps because it is trapped riding in circles all day. 

Paul Jackson

Landing Patterns, 26x20" watercolor

Street Sushi, 36x22" watercolor

Paul Jackson is an award winning watercolor artist from Missouri. The artist does not just work in watercolor. He has also designed the Missouri state quarter for the US mint, created stage backdrops, art murals, public mosaics, and three times eggs for the Presidential Easter eggs at the White House. Jackson also teaches, judges watercolor competitions, and writes instructional books.

I am drawn to the illustrative look to his artwork. Some of his paintings are very realistic, while others are more abstract. They all look like they a story to tell. I want to know why things are happening in his paintings. Is the bird trying to fly with plane or is it the other way around? The paintings make me think and question what I am looking at. Like Jackson’s ability to work in different mediums, he works in different genres as well. He isn’t content to just paint cityscapes or a still lives. Jackson likes to push his comfort zone and try different things. I think that is a good thing. It is hard to grow as an artist if you never try anything new. 

Patricia Tobacco Forrester

Copake, 2006, Watercolor; 40 x 60 inches

Ausable, 1999, Watercolor; 40 x 60 inches

Patricia Tobacco Forrester was a watercolor artist that worked en plein air. Sadly, Forrester passed away in 2011 at the age of 71. Before her death she was a Guggenheim Fellow; and has work shown in Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and the British Museum.

She worked directly from life. The landscapes were not planned or drawn out before hand. Forrester spent seven hour stretches a day painting outside. She did not replicate the scene, but infused memories with what was before her. The main inspiration for her paintings were things that grow. 

My favorite element of Forrester’s paintings is the sense of movement she creates. The movement was created by how fast she painted en plein air. She also did not use the exact colors you would find in nature. Her paintings are bright and exciting. I would like to follow her example and not be so literal about my color choices. There is an interesting mix between the realistic and the abstract of her landscapes. The paintings are somewhere in between the two. Perhaps, they are a little Impressionistic. She let light and the environment direct her to what to paint. She might start with one thing as the focus and find that by the end another element has taken over and become the focus of the landscape.

Henry Fukuhara

Henry Fukuhara was one of the great American watercolor artists. He continued painting until his death, at the age of 96, in 2010. Even though Fukuhara had gone completely blind for the last few years of his life, he continued to paint with an assistant to hand him tools. He was able to paint landscapes completely by memory and touch. The artist lived on both coasts during his lifetime, as well as spending time in Tokyo.

I like the that Fukuhara makes his landscapes fun and not so serious. Even for serious topics. Fukuhara returned to the Japanese detention camp, where he was held during World War II, to paint landscapes and used the same light approach. Surprisingly, he was not bitter about his time in the detention camp. He rationalized that it was war and many men did not return. To make his images of the detention center up beat he focused on symbols. Fukuhara veered from the realistic and instead made abstract landscapes in bright color schemes. He preferred to work en plein air. The paintings have a quick line work to them that show that he is working on site. I think Henry Fukuhara is an inspiration not just as a watercolor landscape artist, but as a person. 

Ted Nuttall

Ted Nuttall is a portrait artist that works in watercolor. He has worked as an illustrator and graphic designer before painting full-time. Nuttall is a nationally respected watercolor artist that has won many awards for his paintings. He also teaches and serves as judges for watercolor competitions. 

What draws me to his paintings is the looseness of them. The paintings have paint dripping down them in areas. There are also parts were splattering of paint was used. The techniques aren’t used at random, they are used to enhance the piece. The dippings will be from the shoulder down the shirt to show the structure of the body. Splattering will also be used in areas of the body that need attention drawn to it. Nuttall uses the minimum amount of brush strokes to get the effect that he wants. It gives a light airy quality to the paintings. The way the artists uses light is done to best show the emotion of the people in the portraits. Perhaps the most interesting things about his paintings are the unique angle which Nuttall chooses to paint his subjects. They are not staged looking portraits. The portraits look natural, thus making the people more interesting and engaging.