Eric Barclay

It's been a while since I posted about an artist whose work I enjoy. I have a number of art and artist blogs that I follow so I'm always finding new and inventive work. Some more inventive than others.

Eric Barclay is a Texas based artist with a fun retro feel and some great use of bright colors. His print work is sweet and whimsical with a focus on animals and children. You can't help but smile when looking at it. I started following Eric's blog a while ago and am completely in love with most of his print work.

But it's his sculpture that I adore. Barclay takes cans, bottles, old light bulbs, and containers of all sorts and paints them to creates characters. The adorable little skunk above was once a Coke can. The two below, recurring characters for Barclay, are made from creamer containers. And to make me love them even more the penguin is Mr. Shackleton (based on Ernest Shackleton the Antarctic explorer I'm fascinated with) and the walrus is Mr. Hudson (based on Henry Hudson the fabled New York explorer).

Eric has done work for a number of different publications and companies. His blog and his website are filled with tons of examples of his great work. I love art that uses unique media and empty bottles, wood, gears, and lightbulbs are certainly unique. This last image, the lion below, was made from an old French's mustard container. I can only post a couple of his examples but check out the rest of his stuff on his website. It is guaranteed to make you smile.  

Brian Despain

I don't remember when I learned about Brian Despain's fun and poignant artwork but I have loved his paintings for quite a while. I've been meaning to share them but things kept getting in the way. But during this past month, both Drawn.ca and Lines and Colors have done profiles on Brian so I figured it was about time I did my own.

Brian's artwork is filled with fish and robots and gears and robots and birds and robots. And did I mention robots. Best known for his series of images portraying robots interacting with both the natural and the man-made world, his artwork has a wonderful mix of technology and emotion. These are not just mechanical creatures that respond to commands. Many of his robots are contemplating, reacting, and exploring. They are emotional and curious. And they are all incredibly rendered.

Using a muted palette of greys and browns, Brian creates a world that is recognizable but a bit surreal. Fish flow from robots' chests. Robots talk with pears and hummingbirds. One odd imaged offered a robot striding through town with a giant octopus for a hat. Each creature in Brian's paintings are detailed, down to the bolts on the robots and the scales on the fish. The images are sharp even if the backgrounds are a bit muted. But the real power of Brian's work for me is the emotion. His robots are surprised or amused or curious. It seems clear though both facial expressions and body language. Or perhaps that is me anthropomorphizing.

Each robot or creature is unique. His creations are each numbered to show their place in the series. These are not sequential though. One of the first images chronologically is robot number 29, seen below, in an image called Mr. Bubble's Birthday. This is a perfect example of the detail and emotion I was talking about. This has to be one of my favorites.


Brian's work has become incredibly popular recently and there are even cell phone skins with his images on them. I'm seriously thinking about picking up one of his laptop covers for my old laptop. And of course I need to pick up a print of his work one of these days. The hardest part will be choosing which incredible image to purchase. There are just too many I want. Fun, sad, poignant, and beautiful robots. What more could any girl want?

Terrible Yellow Eyes

I know I did a blog post for this over at Yet Another Children's Book Blog but it is just too good not to share everywhere. Terrible Yellow Eyes is the brainchild of Cory Godbey, and is a blog tribute to the amazing Maurice Sendak and particularly his book Where the Wild Things Are. Cory has invited various artists to create artwork based on the book which are then posted to the site. The responses have been astounding. There are some downright amazing contributions to the blog and everything is so varied and fabulous. As a side note, the blog just stepped out of the blogosphere and became a gallery show at Gallery Nucleus in California.

When I was growing up I remember reading Where the Wild Things Are over and over. In High School when I was asked to translate a story into Japanese, I chose Sendak's book. I was fascinated with Max's ability to sail off into the unknown. There is a moment when his room becomes a forest that as a child I always wished would happen to my room. So this blog is of special interest to me. Plus with the movie opening soon and hopefully a resurgence in interest in the book (as if Where the Wild Things Are has ever gone out of style) this will be even more interesting. By the way I'm not above eating crow. When I first did a post about movies made out of picture books I mentioned that I was not particularly excited about this adaptation. But the more that I have seen of the visuals, the more excited I am. I only hope that it will keep the tone of the book unlike another picture book/film that has come out this past month.

But my griping aside, Terrible Yellow Eyes is one of the most beautiful tributes I have ever seen to a book. Each piece is beautiful and interesting in its own way. There are paper cut-outs, dioramas, oil, acrylic, watercolor.... on into infinity. The variations of theme and medium are stunning in themselves. If you have ever enjoyed this book, or just like incredible art, check out this site. And thanks Cory. This was a fantastic idea and has become a thing of beauty.

Peter de Seve

It's interesting to read several art blogs because eventually they will all be talking about the same thing. Last week I had never heard the name Peter de Seve. Then over the weekend I went through the entire archive for the blog lines and colors. This has to be my new favorite blog and I wrote down a ton of artists names to look at more closely. Peter de Seve was one of those names.

Then I happened to arrive at Drawn this week to find that they mentioned how Peter now had a blog. Drawn referenced that they found the information from Irene Gallo's blog, The Art Department, which I also read. Then out of nowhere Tony Diterlizzi, who's blog I read, mentioned Peter's work. From not knowing the man's name to 4 mentions in four separate blogs in one week. I just had to go looking for him. And holy cow, I'm so glad I did. I am in love with this man's work!!

And of course what I didn't realize is that I have seen his work all over the place, but just didn't know it. I remember a couple years ago I found a painting with a T. Rex in a Paris street scene. De Seve. I bought the book The Bear Went Over the Mountain (below) and loved the cover art. De Seve again. Peter has done character design for work films like Finding Nemo, A Bugs Life, Ice Age....the list goes on and on.

I've seen his artwork on magazine covers and never recognized the name. I've seen his New Yorker illustrations and never made the connection. He's everywhere. And even more exciting for me, he's coming out with a retrospective book, A Sketchy Past. This image has to be one of my favorites from it. Not only does it suit my vegetarianism, it's just hilarious. I love the look on the faces of the lobsters. Check out his blog for a clearer image.

Peter's style is cartoony but very detailed. He's fantastic at creating action and emotion in the same image. Characters come alive in his work. Each image is like a still frame from an animated film. I think it is interesting that Tony Diterlizzi mentioned Peter because I feel like their styles are very similar. And like Tony, I've been in love with their work for a long time and didn't realize it. I'm not sure why it took me so long to recognize his name but from now on I'll remember it. I'll also be adding his blog to my list of art blogs to read and looking for a copy of A Sketchy Past. I love finding new artists, and particularly ones as talented as de Seve is.