Yusuke Asai is an artist that primarily uses mud to create his massive murals. The thing about Asai is that he specifically uses the dirt and water from the area that he is painting at, in a process he calls “earth painting”. Using material from the earth, Asai considers his art to be “alive” like a giant organism with all its inter-working cells colliding. His paintings consists of multi layered intricate paintings of creatures and characters surrounded by patterns and motifs resembling that of Gustav Klimt. With this Asai creates an imaginative whimsical world of intertwining oddities. From the bottom of the floor, to the ceiling, and everything in between, his painting span the size of entire room as well as on the floor. As mud as his only medium, it’s almost as if he is creating modern day cave painting, making the connection of using a natural pigment and the subject matter of animals.

Source: http://hifructose.com/2016/01/06/yusuke-asai-uses-mud-to-create-his-large-scale-earth-paintings/

Rob Alexander is a Canadian illustrator who is mostly known for his drawings and paintings. In them, he depicts massive, colorful landscapes that convey an amazing sense of depth and scale. He has produced artwork for various venues, including concept art for videogames, illustrations for books, and art for many different tabletop trading card games (most notably, Magic). While most of his works are incredibly fantasy based in nature and subject, Alexander says he is most inspired by working from real life landscapes. Mountains in particular are the biggest influence, particularly the Canadian Rockies, before Alexander moved to the Pacific Northwest. He continues to work as a freelance illustrator to this day. I believe his paintings and drawings relate well when discussing ‘Drawing into space,’ because the work itself showcases the idea of space and distance and perspective so beautifully.

Some examples of Rob Alexander’s work:

Alexander, Honors Vale, Painting.

Alexander, Natural Rhythms, Painting.

Alexander, Underground Sea, Painting, 1993.

Alexander, Last Light of Day, Painting, 2000.

Alexander, At the Bottom of the World, Painting.

Alexander, Atlantis, Painting.

Official Website: http://www.robalexander.com/index.html

Amelie Chabannes was born in France and studied Architecture and Fine Arts at a French Art school called ENSAD.”I first aspired to associate the exploration of the self with archeological procedures.  My recent installations have stood as excavation sites and their sculptural objects were submitted to raw and meticulous recovery in which debris and artifacts are observed as remains of our individuality.” Chabannes soon began to explore identity through excavation which then transitioned to exploring the close relationships of others. The images in her series that visually represent relationships seek to blur those borders between two individuals.

Chabannes technique involves a drawing which is then layered with 20 to 30 of the same drawing on tracing paper. The drawings are flipped and transferred on a wooden surface where then the artist carves into the surface to destroy the areas where the two figures connect to continue to blur the borders between them. The work explores the limitless sense of identity and the destruction of such is an act of defiance. The original image is a single contour drawing that is then layered and overlapped. The original contour outlines shadows and highlights, in a movement similar to continuous line.

Jenny Saville is a talented painter born in Cambridge, England 1970. She likes to focus on the human form and all of its flaws. Her pieces glorify the body in its strangeness and variety. Her painting titled, “Plan” is a great example of her style of subject matter. She touched on the idea of liposuction and the reasons behind it. She enjoyed seeing the marks (like surgery marks) as a map. The lines draw over the topography of the skin giving it geography in a sense. The head of the figure is also hers. She inserted herself to be involved in this idea of self-examination; she is part of the work. “Plan” is a very intimate painting taking the idea of female beauty standards and standing them on their head. The idea of abundance and a mature physique is not recognized in mainstream media. She depicts large women sensually and in power of themselves.

I enjoy the social critique of the majority of her work. There is a long and introspective thought process when you see her work. Something you have been told is sinful and gluttonous is now natural and desirable.

Gagosian.com

Wikipedia Article

Oneonta.edu

Chan Hwee Chong creates spiral illustrations of famous paintings. Using a single line and the push-pull technique to create different layers of shadows and depth. What began as a commission by Faber and Castell to show the precision of their artist pens gave Chan Hwee Chong fame. Hwee Chong is a man from Singapore who is currently living Germany as an art director at a German design studio ‘Kolle Robbe’ in Hamburg. He focuses on exploring typography and art installations in a public space that provoke our senses. Recently Hwee Chong created in collaboration with other artists the Lightstix Graffiti.

The Lightstix Graffiti is an inventive way to create a drawing in a public space that glows and catches the attention of passerby’s, like a beacon. The graffiti fixes glow-sticks onto a surface and then arranges them in such a way to create an image, or a drawing. Resulting in a glowing, beacon in an otherwise dark landscape.

I came into possession of a book which depicts and describes the works done by Van Gogh after he left Arles and went to stay at a facility in Saint-Remy to be cared for. Most of his works from that time are heavily influenced by the spaces he observed from his room or the grounds of the facility. While I chose paintings for this post, there are also a plethora of drawings in the collection as well.

Below is his painting referred to as “Country road with Cypress and Star” and his traditional heavy handed marks, which blur the line between a drawing and a painting, are effective in seemingly showing details that would be closer to the viewer in space and then they proceed to become less harsh as the painting moves further into space. The use of the road as a physical landmark that leads you from foreground to background is what makes full use of space in this work. One follows the road to the back middle and the cypress trees behind the small cottage throw you up into his night sky and beyond.

Below is another painting from entitled” Enclosed Field with Ploughman” and I think it attempts and succeeds to show us such an expanse of space. For me it is how he uses his marks to created concise movement in some areas that lead you off and away into the distance while other areas are more haphazard and created the illusion of detail that is closer and more apparent. His skies also are extremely important in creating a sense of space, using his mark making to show rolling clouds that always lead off the canvas and never are wholly contained within the painting. Finally his windmills help create the illusion of receding farther and farther back help add to the wide and open feeling in this painting. The one in the middle sets the far away point but then a smaller one to the side shows us how far back he can see from his vantage point and only goes to create miles between the viewer and the hills in the distance.