Sean Cheetham

Sean Cheetham is recognised as one of the most acclaimed young figurative painters working today. In 2005 he exhibited in the Portrait Award, at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and was included in American Artist Magazine as one of their 25 Artists Of Tomorrow.

Below is a collection of his looser portrait work. You can feel a real connection to the painters of the late 19th century, too, like Delacroix, Corot or Courbet, or even further back than that. And that's what makes them so appealing to me: the continuation of an important way of creating art that has been largely ignored since the beginning of impressionism.

Robert Mars: The golden age of America

Cars, motels, logos, and other hulking monuments of the 1950’s and 60's saturate Robert Mars’ often desolate landscapes. These instantly recognisable symbols of American history still resonate in today’s mass-advertising world with the independent aesthetic of the highway having been replaced by a standardised corporate culture.

At this time in history, information was not instantly available to millions and there were no instant Internet celebrities. Nowadays, we are left with the enduring myth of the unique and unforgettable personalities of this golden age like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. And it’s with his latest work that Mars searches for today’s equivalent celebrity, if they even exist.

Jeremy Geddes

Perhaps best known for his Cosmonaut series depicting figures peacefully floating in zero gravity, Melbourne-based artist Jeremy Geddes’ photorealist works have a haunting stillness to them. Even when depicting women bursting through windows or walls, there is still silence.

His muted colour palette, coupled with his ability to capture a certain light, create an incredible atmosphere with an immense depth to them. Using surrealist imagery and urban settings, Geddes’ intent is to leave the narrative ambiguous and open to interpretation.

Contemporary abstract art by Eric Blum

Born in Fresno, California in 1956, Eric Blum studied at UCLA and St Martin's in London.

Working with the difficult medium of encaustic he creates multiple layers of resin, watercolour and silk, applied gradually, often at one layer a day. The result is a distorted image: ambiguous forms with an almost infinite depth giving a sense of a fleeting, unfocused, light or movement hitting your peripheral view.

He currently lives and works in New York City.