The longer I look through Laurel Hausler’s portfolio, the more amazed I am at the fine line she walks between control and abandon, order and chaos, reality and fantasy.  The fact that she manages to maintain an equilibrium between these contrasting elements time after time is incredibly impressive.

Some paintings leave my thoughts very quickly after being seen, but Gillian Iles’ paintings seem to linger in my head long after I’ve walked away.  That isn’t the only reason I like her work, but it is perhaps my favourite thing about her work.

Stella Im Hultberg’s approach to her work is varied in both medium and style, though the same mysterious dark haired woman appears quite frequently in her paintings, suggesting a narrative thread that ties these works together. The result is an impressive collection of images that is both beautiful and captivating.

Culling together imagery from many sources, and blending multiple mediums together in a single work can be a dangerous practice in the wrong hands, but in Jenny Scobel’s hands the results are stunning and powerful works of art.

Julian Lee did something very nice for me this weekend; he introduced me to his work.  I am particularly interested with the way Lee layers his imagery to create surreal depictions of modern landscapes that strike me both with a sense of the familiar and the foreign, resulting in a complex balancing act that keeps me coming back for more.

Welcome to the first post of 2010!  To be honest, I was having a hard time trying to single one artist out for this first post of the year, so when I received a message about the Cuckoo Collection, a hybrid gallery/art project, I realized my problem had been solved. The Cuckoo Collection is a (mostly) online project featuring works by great artists like Mathew Borrett (see above image), Scott Griffin, Amy Bowles, and Phil Taylor (see images below the fold), so there’s a little something for everyone there.

Thanks Bettina for the link!

Also, thanks to everyone who’s made their picks already, and if you haven’t chosen your favourite featured artist(s) from the archives yet, be sure to do so in the comments here to be entered in PaintBlog’s first ever contest!

The play of light against dark is a well-worn tool of the artist, and Sam Wolfe Connelly uses it well, but surprisingly, he also seems to be applying this method to his sense of mood. I can’t help but feel a sense of lightness in even the darkest of his works.

Be sure to check out his blog as well, he has a lot of great in-process images there.

Combining strong, bold colours with fine, deliberate lines, Amze Emmons portrays ruined landscapes in a very captivating manner. His  storybook-like style visually conflicts with the broken and abandoned subject matter, but somehow these opposing forces come together to produce a stronger image than either could alone.

You could argue that Karla Wozniak is a cultural archivist as much as she is an artist (or is that the same thing?) While I find myself completely drawn in by her paintings, I’m equally repelled by the accuracy of Wozniak’s depictions of urban and suburban landscapes. Or maybe I’m just repelled by how ‘at home’ I feel in the landscapes she has created.  It might be time to get out of the city for a short vacation.

Fantastical depictions of historical events, anthropomorphized animals, an intense sense of fun, epic battles, and immersive worlds gone awry.  What more could you ask of Jeremy Fish, he’s given us all of this and more.