Soul searching: Joel Daniel Phillips

It’s on the corner of 6^th and Mission in San Francisco that Joel Daniel Phillips meets with the poverty stricken subjects of his ongoing series of finely detailed drawings, 'No Regrets in Life'. These are the protagonists of hard lives whose stories emerge in his large-scale, charcoal and graphite drawings on paper. Every line and wrinkle on a face, or fold and crease of a jacket, tells the story of a life well-worn and the experiences gained along the way.

The one-to-one scale of his work allows every tiny detail to be viewed and explored in a way not usually possible in graphite drawings. This allows us a glimpse behind the first impression of the sitter and gives an indication as to what makes that person who they are.

 

Mark Demsteader

During the 1990s, with Brit Art on the rise, figurative draughtsman and painter, Mark Demsteader found himself surrounded by an art market dominated by conceptual art.

In the difficult years that followed however he finally found massive success, especially following his recent popular drawings of actress Emma Watson, and earning several notable awards including The Lyceum Prize and The Sidney Andrews Scholarship in the process.

His incredible work, a combination of original charcoals, pastels and oils, has undoubtedly renewed interest in traditional life drawing and classic figurative paintings. His drawings typically feature a beautifully balanced combination of the detailed, closely observed upper torso leading to equally striking expressive line work below.

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.

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.

Egon Schiele

The National Gallery currently has a major exhibition examining the central role portraiture played in early twentieth century Vienna, and due to the fact that I blatantly won't be able to get down to see it, as I have kids, I thought I'd post a few of my favourite Egon Schiele drawings.

It's Schiele's clean line work that has always drawn me to his work rather than subject matter or overall emotional impact. And it's something that is pretty clearly visible in my own work. His lines hold an incredible amount of intensity and nervous energy which give an enormous expressive energy to his drawings.

I find it quite humbling to think that Schiele created this incredible body of work before his death in 1918 as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic, at the age of twenty-eight... a couple of years younger than I am now.

The exhibition, Facing The Modern: The Portrait In Vienna 1900, will be on display until 12th January 2014.

Willem de Kooning

"I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art."

Willem de Kooning

Natalia Rak at Folk on the Street Art Festival, Poland

Here's a fantastic new mural by Polish artist and graphic designer Natalia Rak, painted at Folk on the Street Art Festival in Bialystok, Poland, depicting a young girl in traditional Polish dress watering the tree below. Simple, vibrant and massively effective.