Studio Sunday: Mary Pratt
New Brunswick-born artist Mary Pratt was a figurative painter who was best known for her incredibly detailed, photo-realistic paintings of household objects and still-life scenes. Throughout her artistic career, Pratt’s work tended to focus on domestic subject matter; frequently, her paintings featured food and kitchen implements, and familiar household objects.
Pratt’s studio looks like a warm, if slightly cramped space,…
Studio Sunday: Street Artist JR
This week’s Studio Sunday featured artist is JR. JR is a French photographer who’s become associated with street art and graffiti art movements by his large, blown-up black and white photographs that are often installed outdoors, in public spaces. The artist is very private about his real identity and is known only by his pseudonym.
JR’s studio looks quite sleek – I love the big bookshelf behind the artist, that looks like…
Studio Sunday: April Gornik
April Gornik is a painter originally from Cleveland, Ohio. Gornik’s artworks focus on depictions of the American landscape, seen through a dreamlike lens that sometimes obscures or skews real-world views and appearances. The artist’s body of work addresses her country’s fraught history with and relationship to nature and the wilderness.
Gornik’s studio space looks large and bright. The hardwood floors lend a beautiful…
Studio Sunday: Ellen Kozak
Ellen Kozak is a painter and multimedia artist who currently lives and works in New York state. In her artwork, Kozak explores themes of perception and impression, creating artworks that visually express many different facets of perception, from light and colour, to sound and texture.
The first thing I notice, looking at this picture of Kozak’s studio, is the view. The artist’s New York studio looks right out onto the Hudson…
Studio Sunday: Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson is a painter and sculptor who currently lives and works in New York. The artist was born in Colorado and spent time living in both Germany and Korea in his youth, leading to an interesting blend of cultural influences in his artwork. A frequent motif in the artist’s work is also Gibson’s Choctaw-Cherokee heritage.
Gibson’s dog appears to be keeping him company in the studio in this photo – it’s an image…
Studio Sunday: Ralph Steadman
British artist Ralph Steadman is perhaps best known for his illustrations made to accompany several volumes of writing by Hunter S. Thompson, including the critically acclaimed novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Steadman is a prolific artist, however, and has been making work in a variety of realms for decades.
The artist apparently tends to work by splashing paint randomly on a piece of art paper, then drawing lines over the…
Studio Sunday: Song-Ming Ang
Singaporean conceptual artist Song-Ming Ang is known for his work with music. Ang often utilizes actual music instruments in his practice, deconstructing and rebuilding them or forcing them into different configurations. The artist also frequently incorporates video, performance, and multimedia elements into his work.
Ang’s studio looks bright and clean, something like the studio spaces of other artists like Margaret Lee or …
Studio Sunday: Trenton Doyle Hancock
Trenton Doyle Hancock is an American artist who works primarily in acrylic paint and mixed media, creating two-dimensional artworks that have an abstracted, collaged aesthetic. Born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas, the artist draws on his own personal history, as well as elements of pop culture and art history, in the making of his artworks.
The exuberant colours present in Hancock’s studio present a great overall picture of the…
Studio Sunday: Stephen Appleby-Barr
Toronto-based artist Stephen Appleby-Barr is our Studio Sunday feature this week. Appleby-Barr has become known for his detailed, realistic oil paintings that immortalize fictional characters and figures from the artist’s own imagination. A combination of regal, anachronistic aesthetics and a surreal use of figure and symbolism creates a wonderfully unique aesthetic for the artist’s works.
Appleby-Barr’s studio looks airy…
Studio Sunday: Gustav Klimt
Austrian painter Gustav Klimt got his start in the late 19th century as a decorative painter, creating embellishments for architectural constructions. The artist is well-known for his figurative paintings, many of which depict romantic or erotic subject matter and incorporate gold-leaf accents.
Klimt’s studio is quite spacious – having never seen his paintings in person, I didn’t realize that they were so large. The studio…
Studio Sunday: Tamara de Lempicka
This week’s Studio Sunday artist is Tamara de Lempicka. Lempicka was born in Poland and was active as a painter during the 1920s and 30s, during which time she lived in Paris, France. The artist was best known for her highly stylized portraits of upper-class people, created for fashion magazines, and art deco exhibitions.
Lempicka’s studio is certainly in keeping with the art deco aesthetic. I can imagine the artist throwing…
Studio Sunday: Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, Switzerland, and spent most of his working life in Paris. The artist worked in many media including painting, printmaking, and sculpture, drawing inspiration from surrealism and cubism, but is mainly remembered for his small-scale sculptural works.
Giacometti’s studio looks like a space of well-ordered chaos. The artist, pictured sitting and contemplating one of his sculptures, looks…
Studio Sunday: Edward Gorey
This week’s Studio Sunday artist is Edward Gorey. Gorey was an American artist who specialized in pen-and-ink drawings and was best known for his illustrated books. The artist often approach his work with a sense of macabre humour, and many of his drawings depicted children and other figures in Victorian or Edwardian styles.
The first thing I notice in the above photo of Gorey at his desk is all the cats! I love to see an artist…
Studio Sunday: Per Kirkeby
Per Kirkeby was a Danish artist who worked in painting and sculpture. The artist was especially well-known for abstract paintings that focused on structure and composition, even occasionally incorporating an architectural sensibility. The artist had a formal education in geology which tended to inform his practice.
Kirkeby’s studio is messy, paint-splattered, and has the slightly dark, crowded atmosphere of studios like those of…
Studio Sunday: Dorothy Cross
Dorothy Cross was born in Cork, Ireland, and today is considered one of Irelands foremost internationally-recognized artists. Cross works in a variety of media including sculpture, photography, and film, addressing themes of cultural and sexual identity, as well as the subconscious.
Cross’ studio has a beautifully open and natural feel to it – the planks of what looks like driftwood stacked against the wall in the back right…